Portland

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Also there is interesting Frozen Tundra discussion as to the best team ever to finish second.  

In 1942, the St. Louis Cardinals and the Brooklyn Dodgers both won the pennant by 20 games.  The Dodgers happened to finish second -- with a 104-50 record.  

The Dodgers had an interesting symmetry to them, "The Perfect Team," one which had ABOVE average players at EVERY position.  James, who would know, finds it unlikely that any team in history would see this dream actualized, since only 1 in 8,000 teams might figure to do it (by chance draw, if you were drafting Strat-O-Matic randomly).  But the 1942 Dodgers came closer than anybody: