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In Major League, there are some references made about winning the whole "thing"

Jake stands up in the locker room and says:

Well, then I guess that there's only one thing left to do. Win the whole f**kin' thing.

Then, Lou says:

I figure that it's gonna take 32 more victories to win this thing.

Isn't the World Series the "thing" to win in professional baseball?

The end of the movie just shows one game between the Indians and the Yankees.

What exactly did the Indians win when they defeated the Yankees?

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The Division Championship

If they win that, they go on to the post-season play-off competition to determine who goes on to the World Series.

When the regular season ends after the first Sunday in October (or the last Sunday in September), ten teams enter the postseason playoffs. These ten teams consist of six teams that are division champions by earning the best regular season overall win-loss record for their respective divisions, and four who are "wild-card" teams that are each one of two teams in their respective leagues who have earned the best regular season win-loss record, but are not division champions

Wikipedia

This is the 2017 arrangement. In 1989, the year the film was released, only 4 team made the play-offs (2 divisions from each of the 2 leagues) and there were no wild-card spots.

Plot Snippet

....the team continues to win and bring themselves into contention for the division championship

The team VP Charlie Donovan visits Brown and informs him of Phelps' plan to make the team lose. He tells Brown that no matter how well they do, they will be fired or released after the season. Brown holds a team meeting and lets the players know of Phelps' plan. Taylor speaks up and encourages the players to win the title anyway, and Brown comes up with a way to motivate them into winning enough games to capture the title.

The team succeeds in tying the division with the New York Yankees, leading to a one-game playoff to determine the champions.

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  • Is that what it means when they say winning a "penant"? – steelersquirrel Jun 17 '17 at 1:42
  • Each season, a National League team wins the league's pennant, signifying that they are its champion and they win the right to play in the World Series against the champion of the American League. - Wikipedia – Paulie_D Jun 17 '17 at 4:30
  • One very minor note. The snippet from wiki you are using describes the current MLB playoff format as opposed to the format that would have been in use when the movie was released. In 1989, only 4 teams made the playoffs. There were two divisions per league and no wild card teams. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_League_Baseball_postseason You'd want to reference the 1969 to 1993 section. – kuhl Jun 18 '17 at 2:03
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    @kuhl Thanks, added a not to clarify. – Paulie_D Jun 18 '17 at 6:57

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