2001 MLB season | |
---|---|
League | Major League Baseball |
Sport | Baseball |
Duration | April 1 – November 4, 2001 |
Number of games | 162 |
Number of teams | 30 |
TV partner(s) | Fox/FX/Fox Family, ESPN |
Draft | |
Top draft pick | Joe Mauer |
Picked by | Minnesota Twins |
Regular Season | |
Season MVP | AL: Ichiro Suzuki (SEA) NL: Barry Bonds (SF) |
Postseason | |
AL champions | New York Yankees |
AL runners-up | Seattle Mariners |
NL champions | Arizona Diamondbacks |
NL runners-up | Atlanta Braves |
World Series | |
Champions | Arizona Diamondbacks |
Runners-up | New York Yankees |
World Series MVP | Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling (AZ) |
The 2001 Major League Baseball season finished with the Arizona Diamondbacks defeating the New York Yankees in seven games for the World Series championship. The September 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C. pushed the end of the regular season from September 30 to October 7. Because of the attacks, the World Series was not completed until November 4. The 2001 World Series was the first World Series to end in November.
MLB used an unbalanced schedule for the first time since 1992 in the National League and 1978 in the American League. In all divisions except the NL Central and AL West each team played each of the other four teams in the same division 19 times. In the NL Central division foes met 16 or 17 times per season and in the AL West there were 19 or 20 games between each division foe.
This season was memorable for the Seattle Mariners tying the Major League regular season record of 116 wins, Barry Bonds breaking Mark McGwire's single-season home run record, and baseball's patriotic return after a week's worth of games being postponed due to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.