I've always felt that in team sports, player leadership and peer pressure go a long way in setting the tone for a team's performance and effort. In 1992, the Twins let Danny Gladden and Jack Morris go and may have upgraded their sports with John Smiley and Pedro Munoz but they a big part of the h.
Pittsburgh now is exactly 30 years removed from the worst sports defeat in its history, a 3-2 loss to the Atlanta Braves, which kept the Pirates out of the World Series then, and perhaps forever.