2002 American League Division Series

2002 American League Division Series
2002 American League Division Series
Teams
Team (Wins)
Team (Wins)
Anaheim Angels (3)
New York Yankees (1)
Dates	October 1–5
Television	Fox (Games 1–2, 4); ABC Family (Game 3)
TV announcers	Joe Buck, Tim McCarver (Games 1–2); Jon Miller, Joe Morgan (Game 3); Thom Brennaman, Tim McCarver (Game 4)
Radio	ESPN (National); KLAC (ANA)
Radio announcers	Dan Shulman, Dave Campbell (ESPN Radio); Rory Markas, Terry Smith (KLAC)
Teams
Team (Wins)
Team (Wins)
Minnesota Twins (3)
Oakland Athletics (2)
Dates	October 1–6
Television	ABC Family
TV announcers	Jon Miller, Joe Morgan (Games 1–2, 5); Dave O'Brien, Tony Gwynn, Rick Sutcliffe (Games 3–4)
Radio	ESPN
Radio announcers	John Rooney, Buck Martinez
Umpires	Jerry Crawford, Doug Eddings, Jim Joyce, Mike Winters, Tim McClelland, Fieldin Culbreth (Yankees–Angels, Games 1–2; Athletics–Twins, Games 3–4); Gerry Davis, Chuck Meriwether, Alfonso Márquez, Derryl Cousins, Joe West, Laz Díaz (Athletics–Twins, Games 1–2, 5; Yankees–Angels, Games 3–4)

The 2002 American League Division Series (ALDS), the opening round of the 2002 American League playoffs, began on Tuesday, October 1, and ended on Sunday, October 6, with the champions of the three AL divisions—along with a "wild card" team—participating in two best-of-five series. The teams were:

(1) New York Yankees (Eastern Division champion, 103–58) vs. (4) Anaheim Angels (Wild Card, 99–63): Angels win series, 3–1.
(2) Oakland Athletics (Western Division champion, 103–59) vs. (3) Minnesota Twins (Central Division champion, 94–67): Twins win series, 3–2.

^[1]

The first of the 2 Division Series matchups saw the wild card-qualifying Angels pull a shocking upset of the defending league champion Yankees (ending the latter's bid for a fifth consecutive World Series appearance), while the other saw the Twins defeat the heavily-favored Athletics. The Angels and Twins went on to meet in the AL Championship Series (ALCS). The Angels became the American League champion, and defeated the National League champion San Francisco Giants in the 2002 World Series, for their first-ever World title.

^ The higher seed (in parentheses) had the home field advantage (Games 1, 2 and 5 at home), which was determined by playing record. The Yankees were not required to make up one remaining game against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, potentially allowing the Athletics to tie them for the best record, because they had a 5–4 advantage over Oakland in head-to-head play and thus would win the tiebreaker for home field advantage through the playoffs.

[1] The higher seed (in parentheses) had the home field advantage (Games 1, 2 and 5 at home), which was determined by playing record. The Yankees were not required to make up one remaining game against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, potentially allowing the Athletics to tie them for the best record, because they had a 5–4 advantage over Oakland in head-to-head play and thus would win the tiebreaker for home field advantage through the playoffs.

[1]