 |
 |
|
| | Thursday, October 28 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
ESPN.com | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Back-to-back. Repeat. Dynasty. Whatever you want to call it, the New York Yankees ruled the baseball world once again. They became the 20th team to win consecutive World Series titles. Is it the best two-year run ever? Let the debating begin.
Here are baseball's repeat champions. For the three teams who won more than two straight World Series ('36-39 Yankees, '49-53 Yankees, '72-74 A's), we picked the best two-year span of their run. The chart includes overall regular-season record, total games ahead of the second-place team, the team's finish in the league in runs scored and runs allowed and overall postseason record.
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of these Yankees is their cumulative postseason record: 22-3. You don't do that in the regular season when you're whipping up on the Tigers and the Devil Rays, let alone in the playoffs. Simply put, this team makes no mistakes and has no weaknesses. In an era of powerhouse baseball, the Yankees can throw four top starters at you, beat you with power and average and then turn it over to Mariano Rivera in the ninth. Their rotation of Orlando Hernandez, David Cone, Andy Pettitte and Roger Clemens may be the best one here. Of course, the Yankees also matched the '27-28 Yankees and '38-39 Yankees with consecutive World Series sweeps. And neither team they defeated was a slouch -- the Padres won 98 games and the Braves 103. 1992-93 Toronto Blue Jays Of all the championship seasons for these teams, only once did a team finish lower than third in their league in runs allowed -- the '92 Blue Jays, who finished eighth. The Blue Jays were a mix of youngsters (Roberto Alomar, John Olerud, Juan Guzman) and veterans (Joe Carter, Paul Molitor, Dave Winfield, Jack Morris). They also revamped their roster heavily between the two championship seasons, moreso than any other team on the list. They replaced Winfield with Molitor, lost Jimmy Key but signed Dave Stewart. The 1980s was baseball's most competitive decade (no repeat champions), and the Blue Jays deserve credit for becoming the first team in 15 years to win back-to-back titles. 1977-78 New York Yankees The Yankees barely edged out the Orioles to win the AL East in 1977 and needed a tiebreaker to win the title in '78. They weren't an offensive powerhouse (fourth in the league in runs scored both seasons) but led the league in pitching both years, led by Ron Guidry's 25-3 campaign in 1978. Reggie Jackson and Graig Nettles led the offense and the team defeated the Dodgers both times in the World Series. 1975-76 Cincinnati Reds Everybody knows about the Big Red Machine. Joe Morgan was the best player in baseball in 1975-76 when he two won MVPs and he received plenty of support from Johnny Bench, Pete Rose, George Foster, Tony Perez, Dave Concepcion and Ken Griffey the elder. They blew away the rest of the National League, winning two division titles by 20 and 10 games. However, while the pitching was above average (third in the league both years), the Reds didn't have a pitcher win more than 15 games in either season. 1972-73 Oakland A's The A's didn't dominate during the regular season and didn't dominate during the postseason. They just won the final game when they had to. In 1972, they beat the Tigers 3-2 in the ALCS and the Reds 4-3 in the World Series. In 1973, they beat the Orioles 3-2 and the Mets 4-3. The A's were similar to the current Yankees on a talent rotation. Excellent rotation (Catfish Hunter, Vida Blue, Ken Holtzman), great closer (Rollie Fingers) and deep lineup (Reggie Jackson, Sal Bando, Joe Rudi, Gene Tenace). However, they did benefit from some relatively weak postseason competition. The '73 Mets were the worst league champion in history. 1961-62 New York Yankees The '61 club won 109 games as Roger Maris hit 61 homers and Mickey Mantle hit 54. Whitey Ford went 25-4. Ralph Terry was an excellent No. 2 starter (16-3 in '61, 23-12 in '62), but these Yankees lacked the pitching depth in their rotation. Also, they didn't blow away the competition. When they won 109 games, the Tigers won 101. They won 96 the next year, just five games up on the Twins. 1952-53 New York Yankees With Casey Stengel at the helm, the Yankees won five straight World Series championships. Joe DiMaggio was there through '51 and then he handed the reins to a young Mickey Mantle. Yogi Berra was the rock behind the plate and the pitching was outstanding with Allie Reynods, Vic Raschi, Eddie Lopat and Whitey Ford (in '53, he was in the military in '52). The Yankees didn't crush the American League during the seasons -- they won the five pennants by a combined 19½ games -- but they did crush the hearts of the Brooklyn Dodgers in the World Series. They beat Brooklyn in '52 and '53. In '52, they won Games 6 and 7 at Ebbets Field and in '53 they beat a Brooklyn team that had won 105 games. 1938-39 New York Yankees How dominant were these Yankees? For four straight years, they led the AL in most runs scored and fewest runs allowed. They swept the World Series in 1938 and 1939. In 1939, the team -- led by Joe DiMaggio and Bill Dickey -- scored 967 runs and surrendered just 556. Wow. 1929-30 Philadelphia Athletics How good were these Athletics? The 1929 Yankees featured seven Hall of Famers -- and finished 18 games back. Of course, Connie Mack's team had four Hall of Famers of its own -- Jimmie Foxx, Mickey Cochrane, Al Simmons and Lefty Grove, perhaps the greatest pitcher of all time. How good was he? In 1930, he went 28-5 with nine saves. He led the league in wins, ERA, strikeouts, games, winning percentage and saves. The pitching staff wasn't extremely deep, but George Earnshaw was 24-8 and 22-13 and Rube Walberg won 38 games. But with Grove around, they would be mighty tough in a seven-games series. 1927-28 New York Yankees Ruth and Gehrig. 8-0 in the World Series. Murderer's Row. 1921-22 New York Giants The first Subway Series -- the Giants defeated Babe Ruth's Yankees both years. Actually, all games were played at the Polo Grounds, since Yankee Stadium didn't open until 1923. These Giants were solid, but probably the least spectacular of all the teams here. 1915-16 Boston Red Sox A young left-hander named Babe Ruth won 18 games in '15 and 23 the next season. Hall of Famer Tris Speaker led the offense. 1910-11 Philadelphia Athletics The A's won two AL pennants by 28 games with Hall of Famers Eddie Collins and Home Run Baker on offense. The pitching staff also features Hall of Famers in Eddie Plank and Chief Bender. Jack Coombs didn't make the Hall, but he led the AL with 31 wins in 1910 and 28 the next year. They won again in 1913. Mack then broke up his dynasty after losing the 1914 Series to the "Miracle Braves." 1907-08 Cubs The Cubs lost the 1906 World Series to their crosstown rivals the White Sox, but recovered to defeat Ty Cobb's Tigers in the next two. Pitching was the game for these guys: Jack Pfiester, Carl Lundgren, Hall of Famer Three-Finger Brown and Orval Overall ranked 1-2-3-5 in ERA in '07. The double-play combination was three guys named Tinker, Evers and Chance. 2. 1998-99 Yankees 3. 1975-76 Reds 4. 1929-30 Athletics 5. 1927-28 Yankees But that's only an opinion. | ALSO SEE ESPN.com's World Series coverage
Klapisch: They break your heart
 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||