Historical Races: 1949, 1978, 2005

American League 1949. Yankees led the entire year. The Sox caught them on the second to last weekend of the season and then lost the last two games of the season in the Bronx to end up a game behind.

AL East 1978. Fourteen game lead over the Yankees on July 9. The one game playoff. Bucky F***ing Dent. The amazing thing is the Sox put together quite a streak , including winning the last 8 games of the regular season.
AL East 2005. Almost a parallel of 1949. Almost. The Yankees didn't bother to blow the last weekend series.(I did these with Excel and the dates show up as the year I did them, 2005, rather than the 1949 or 1978.)