It’s time for a fun edition of our MLB Monday miniseries checking out the postseason awards and the managerial ones, too. The 1988 postseason was an interesting one for many reasons, as we will explore below. But this also denotes a demarcation line of sorts in the sport: the PED era pretty much begins with this year in the sport. Heck, in all sports, if we look at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea.

1988 World Series MVP: Orel Hershiser, SP, Los Angeles (original, confirmed)

The Los Angeles Dodgers upset the Oakland Athletics in what many considered to be a shocker, winning the World Series in 5 games. Dodgers starter Orel Hershiser, who finished the regular season on a historical roll, continued his dominance in the Series with a 2-0 record, a 1.00 ERA, a 0.722 WHIP, and 17 strikeouts in 18 innings pitched. It’s hard to be much better than that in a 5-game matchup, with wins in Games 2 and 5.

For the record, we do want to point out the randomly great performance of Dodgers utility man Mickey Hatcher: he went 7-for-19 with 2 HRs, 5 RBI, 1 BB, a .368 average, and a 1.137 OPS. If Hershiser hadn’t been so on fire in the last 3 months of this baseball season, then Hatcher definitely would have won this award (assuming an L.A. victory still, which isn’t probable without Orel, of course). But this is just a side note.

1988 ALCS MVP: Dennis Eckersley, RP, Oakland (original, confirmed)

The A’s swept the Boston Red Sox in 4 games to win the pennant for the first time since 1974 by winning the first 2 games in Boston by 1 one run each and then pounding the opponent once back home in Games 3 and 4 by a combined 14-7 score. Oddly, Oakland closer Dennis Eckersley got the save in all 4 games, despite the larger margins in the latter 2 contests. Thus, he won the vote at the time, but we should investigate still.

At least 3 different A’s hitters could have been up for this award, too, but it’s hard to separate their performances in a voting process. The relief saves were obviously huge in the 1-run wins on the road that basically locked up the matchup early. SP Dave Stewart posted a 1.35 ERA in 2 starts over 13 1/3 innings, but that wasn’t dominant enough, and relief pitcher Gene Nelson actually went 2-0 in 4 2/3 IP (0.00 ERA).

Both Stewart starts in Games 1 and 4 came against Boston’s Bruce Hurst, the 1986 postseason hero for the Red Sox staff. Those were psychologically big starts for Stew, and he didn’t lose either one. Yet we do keep coming back to the first 2 games in Boston: the series is very different if the Red Sox win even just 1 of those games at home, and Eck shut the door twice: a combined 3 IP, 0.667 WHIP, 3 Ks, and 0.00 ERA. Confirmed.

1988 NLCS MVP: Hershiser (original, confirmed)

The Dodgers dropped the New York Mets in a wild 7-game series that came down to a final game in Los Angeles, where Hershiser tossed a 5-hit shutout in a 6-0 victory for the Dodgers. That won him the MVP vote, and his overall numbers were awesome, of course: 1-0, 1.09 ERA, 24 2/3 IP, 1 save, and a 1.014 WHIP. He started 3 games and saved another (Game 4). It’s hard to think of anyone else in this matchup deserving.

1988 AL MOTY: Tony La Russa, Oakland (original); Joe Morgan, Boston (revised)

The A’s won the AL West by 13 games, thanks to Manager Tony La Russa and his plus-4 PPP mark. But Oakland would have won that division, regardless, so let’s also check out the AL East as La Russa won the vote. The Red Sox survived by 1 game over the Detroit Tigers and Manager Sparky Anderson (plus-2 PPP), after a midseason managerial change. That managerial change makes the PPP marks relatively ignorable.

Under John McNamara, the Red Sox went 43-42 and were in fourth place, 9 games out of first place at the All-Star break. Replacement Joe Morgan posted a 46-31 record the rest of the way, and he really deserved this award, regardless of PPP dynamics. It’s rare we have a situation like this, but La Russa could have won the AL West blindfolded with that roster. He’s a great manager, but … our hardware is going to Morgan.

1988 NL MOTY: Tommy Lasorda, Los Angeles (original, confirmed)

Dodgers Manager Tommy Lasorda won the vote for the second time in his career, and we will confirm his win, almost by default. The Mets won the NL East by 15 games with a zero-PPP managerial effort from Davey Johnson, and Los Angeles won the NL West by 7 games. Lasorda’s plus-3 PPP mark was tied for the best result in the league, actually, so it’s an easy analysis to wrap up simply and quickly.