Fall’s fiercest fielders assert dominance over the pinewood pretenders of summer when the World Series redefines intensity and iconography. Legends rise through the ashes of blazing fastballs and hotter seats for managers.
Our guide details baseball’s best of the 118-year bunch.
The Yankees rose to the biggest occasion in baseball far before any person or baseball rose for current home run king Aaron Judge. The team’s 27 championships best the mark of every professional sports team in the United States. Consistent splurging on the biggest-name players drawn to the allure of the greatest history and visibility platform in baseball breaks the bank and records.
Frank Sinatra would be proud of New York, New York baseball. Babe Ruth consumed hotdogs in the outfield. Mickey Mantle drank as hard as the seven-time World Series champion played. Joe DiMaggio accumulated nine World Series rings and put a wedding one on Marilyn Monroe’s famed finger. Derek Jeter matched his predecessors’ flash, delivering gift baskets to a score of starlets en route to five World Series wins.
The player with the most World Series wins isn’t Mantle, DiMaggio or even Ruth. Yogi Berra is the leader, with 10 World Series rings in 18 seasons with the New York Yankees.
Witticisms affectionately called “Yogi-isms,” such as “When you come to a fork in the road, take it,” overshadow his record-setting playing career. Earning the most career World Series hits while capturing with three regular-season MVPs deserves maximum respect.
The St. Louis Cardinals soar above NL competitors with 11 World Series wins. The act of polishing a full trophy case started dirtily. The team’s initial trio of championships arrived at the grubby hands of the “Gashouse Gang.” Those St. Louis squads nicknamed after old factories converting coal to gas relished in a physical, rule-bending style opposite of the systematically clean-cut New York Yankees in the AL.
Stan Musial led by example of excellence to get the next three rings. Bob Gibson emerged as the league’s premiere pitcher to spearhead superior rotations that literally threw the team to its next two World Series rings and largely caused the lowering of the pitcher’s mound for the 1969 season.
Athleticism in the outfield and on the basepaths ruled the days of October 1982. Famed manager Tony La Russa guided generational slugger Albert Pujols and a formidable supporting cast to wins in 2006 and 2011.
The Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers have tasted the sour notes of October disappointment 14 times, more than even the bitter rival New York Yankees (13). Cool West Coast winds failed to represent the winds of change for decades, with eight of the Dodgers’ losses to the Yankees. Babe Ruth tortured the team before he even wore pinstripes, tossing 13 shutout innings for the Boston Red Sox in Game 2 of the 1916 World Series to help hand the Dodgers (then the Brooklyn Robins) their first World Series defeat.
Dave Roberts’ questionable rotation management returned the Dodgers to those inglorious times with losses to the scandalous 2017 Houston Astros and better-received 2018 Red Sox. He did manage Los Angeles to the 2020 title, its seventh MLB championship.
Former New York Yankees captain Thurman Munson bestowed the “Mr. October” nickname upon Reggie Jackson, for good reason. Jackson clobbered three home runs on three consecutive swings during the 1977 World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The stroke was so sweet that Curtiss Candy made a peanut and caramel “Reggie!” bar named after him the next year. Jackson’s career World Series average towers at .357. Power flexed with consistently clutch contact makes “Mr. October” the only player to win World Series MVP for multiple franchises (1973 Oakland A’s, 1977 Yankees).
MLB hit king and three-time World Series champion Pete Rose said of facing Sandy Koufax: “How in the hell are you going to hit that curveball?”
The biggest hitters discovered zero solutions during the biggest games. The roller coaster repertoire of a high fastball and plummeting curveball shut out the Minnesota Twins in two 1965 World Series games pitched on two days of rest. Koufax refused to even play in Game 1 due to observing Yom Kippur. He completed two other World Series wins in 1963 against the New York Yankees.
Bob Gibson’s swooping delivery and predatory performance of imposing his will on opponents resembled Batman. The Hall of Fame supporter of friendlier feathers was named MVP in 1964 and 1967, and punched out a record 17 batters in Game 1 of the 1968 World Series against the Detroit Tigers. Only Yankees ace Whitey Ford had more career strikeouts in World Series history, with Gibson only two behind despite 65 fewer innings.
“The Big Red Machine” operated perfectly with a 7-0 postseason record. Johnny Bench’s then-unparalleled power for a catcher, combined with the hustle of Hall of Famers Pete Rose and Joe Morgan, and strong support from All-Stars like Ken Griffey Sr. spearheaded a legendary squad that stands a good chance at being the only team with a perfect MLB postseason record. Many consider the squad to be the best non-Yankees team ever assembled.
“Murderers’ Row” victimized unsuspecting competitors with baseball bats. Serial baseball killers Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig set the record for extra-base hits by a duo in a season with 214. The former became the first player to hit 60 home runs in a season, while the latter captured the AL MVP trophy. Fellow Hall of Famers Earle Combs and Tony Lazzeri joined the fastball feast. The 1927 Yankees slugged 102 more homers than the Philadelphia Athletics in second place.
Yankees pitchers led the league in team ERA. The complete domination drove them to a 110-44 record in the regular season and capped the campaign with a World Series sweep.
“Shoeless” Joe Jackson led the pack of baseball’s eight pariahs nicknamed the “Black Sox” who fixed the 1919 World Series for $100,000. Jackson knew about the plan, but his performance for the Chicago White Sox substantiates he didn’t adhere to it. He batted .375 with errorless play in the field.
The infamous scandal’s totality engulfed him and he was banned from baseball, ending the career of one of the game’s purest hitters with a .356 career batting average generated by a swing Babe Ruth admitted to emulating. The Cincinnati Reds kept their 1919 World Series win.
The ghosts of the Black Sox whooshed around the technology rooms of the 2017 Astros, where new schemes unfolded. Investigators determined the Astros used a secretive buzzer system to alert hitters what the next pitch was going to be, via illegally stolen signs.
Commissioner Rob Manfred rescinded multiple draft picks and fined the team a maximum amount of $5 million. The Astros fired victorious 2017 World Series manager A.J. Hinch in 2020. Non-Texans bemoan the decision to allow Houston to keep this World Series win.
Unscrupulous cycles repeated in 2018 when Commissioner Manfred determined the Red Sox used the replay monitor to illegally steal signs during the season. The team’s replay room operator and suspiciously advanced video scout ran the operation. One was suspended and the Red Sox lost a draft pick, but the 2018 World Series winners didn’t face any player or championship-relinquishing repercussions.
Imagine being on a four-game road trip facing Pedro Martinez, Curt Schilling, Derek Lowe and Tim Wakefield’s knuckleball on the mound, with Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz awaiting you at the plate.
Sounds horrifying, right? The stacked 2004 Red Sox found themselves in a scarier hole in the 2004 ALCS, until Bambino’s curse cracked with an improbable 3-0 comeback against the rival Yankees. Schilling even pitched multiple innings with a bloody sock to grit out a Game 6 victory.
Losing a World Series after that magic would have epitomized heartbreak. But Ramirez and Ortiz struck dingers, and rather than the clock striking midnight on an overpowered Cinderella, the Red Sox swept the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series and remain the only MLB team to overcome a 3-0 playoff deficit.
The 2022 Astros leveraged the vast, championship-level experience enjoyed by a franchise representing the AL in the World Series three of the past four years.
Hitting dynamo Yordan Alvarez supplied the slugging spark, while Jose Altuve reprised his familiar role as a dependable, all-around hitter. Rookie Jeremy Pena added a dash of youthful energy with his glove and opportune offense to win World Series MVP.
Dusty Baker conceded pitching decisions to his staff to mitigate the damage of leaving starters in too long, which was Baker’s tragic flaw that had made the playoffs a sad career story of almost. Baseball’s first black manager with 2,000 wins capped his career by wrangling the World Series ring that had eluded him.
The New York Yankees have won the World Series 27 times.
Yogi Berra played on 10 World Series-winning teams for the New York Yankees. Frankie Crosetti combined for 17 as a player and coach.
Yes! The “Curse of the Billy Goat” was lifted in 2016 with a win over the Cleveland Indians. The Cubs won prior World Series in 1907 and 1908.
The 1909 Pirates were 110-42 for the best winning percentage (.724). The 1998 New York Yankees had the best champions’ record for a 162-game season (114-48, .704).
Babe Ruth won the World Series seven times, four with the New York Yankees (1923, 1927, 1928, 1932) and three with the Boston Red Sox (1915, 1916, 1918).
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