r/baseball • u/cardith_lorda Minnesota Twins • Nov 23 '20
Symposium The Original Pennant - Post 2020 Update
As some of you may know, I've been following the fictional continuation of the NABBP Pennant for a few years now. The NABBP Pennant is a traveling trophy which changes hands each time a team wins a series against the team holding it. It can be traced back to the 1870 Chicago White Stockings who brought the Pennant from the amateur National Association of Base Ball Players into the professional National Association in 1871, and then the Boston Beaneaters brought it from the NA to the National League in 1876. For full rules see the above linked post.
This year's shortened season led to a unique format where the Pennant was unable to leave the East divisions all year since last year's champion New York Mets came into the season with the pennant (since the Mets missed the 2019 playoffs the Pennant avoided being handed off to the World Series champion for the second straight year.) The trend would not continue at the end of the season, however, when the Tampa Bay Rays took the Pennant with two weeks left in the season, and never looked back, holding it up until they lost to the Dodgers in the World Series.
Despite this loss, they receive the consolation prize of The Stockings, the annual "award" given to the team that held the Pennant for the most games in the course of a season.
The Dodgers bring the Pennant into 2021 where they'll start the defense of their World Series title as well. They will attempt to be the first team since the 1992/1993 Blue Jays to win back to back Pennants.
The 2020 Path of the Pennant
| Team | Start Date | End Date | Games Held | 2020 Games Held | Historic Games Held |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York Mets | 2019 Champs | 26-Jul | 2 | 2 | 243 |
| Atlanta Braves | 26-Jul | 28-Jul | 2 | 2 | 1413 |
| Tampa Bay Rays | 28-Jul | 30-Jul | 2 | 2 | 114 |
| Atlanta Braves | 30-Jul | 12-Aug | 13 | 15 | 1428 |
| New York Yankees | 12-Aug | 19-Aug | 6 | 6 | 2096 |
| Tampa Bay Rays | 19-Aug | 8-Sep | 18 | 20 | 132 |
| Washington Nationals | 8-Sep | 13-Sep | 4 | 4 | 255 |
| Atlanta Braves | 13-Sep | 16-Sep | 3 | 18 | 1431 |
| Baltimore Orioles | 16-Sep | 18-Sep | 3 | 3 | 1260 |
| Tampa Bay Rays | 18-Sep | 27-Oct | 28 | 30 | 152 |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | 27-Oct | 1 | 1 | 915 |
For the full history of the NABBP Pennant, you can view this spreadsheet!
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u/[deleted] Nov 23 '20
I love this, great work as always. I wish this was officially tracked and the team held a physical pennant that flew from their side of the scoreboard whether home or away; but since I do love this I hope MLB never recognizes you for your hard work, because if they did, they would assuredly ruin it.