 |
| Dustin Pedroia Elise Amendola/AP |
Major League Baseball quotes, notes, and random facts
A World Series Moment: Rockies and Sox captured in numbers.
Compiled by Ross Atkinfrom the October 24, 2007 edition
Page 1 of 2
World Series championships
New York Yankees, 26
St. Louis Cardinals, 10
Boston Red Sox, 6
New York Giants, 5
Philadelphia Athletics, 5
Pittsburgh Pirates, 5
Los Angeles Dodgers, 5
Cincinnati Reds, 5
Detroit Tigers, 4
Oakland Athletics, 4
Teams yet to make it to the World Series
American League
• Seattle Mariners
• Tampa Bay Devil Rays
• Texas Rangers
National League
• Milwaukee Brewers
• Washington Nationals (formerly Montreal Expos)
Length of the series
Historically, the series is twice as likely to go a full seven games than end in a 4-0 sweep. The breakdown:
• 4 games: 17 percent
• 5 games: 25 percent
• 6 games: 22 percent
• 7 games: 35 percent
Inconsistent rule
Because only the American League adopted the designated hitter rule in 1973, the DH is only used in AL parks during the series. For games in National League parks, pitchers must bat.
TV highs and lows
High: 1971 (NBC)
59 percent of households with TVs on watched the Pittsburgh Pirates defeat the Baltimore Orioles 4 games to 3.
Low: 2006 (Fox)
17 percent of households watched the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Detroit Tigers 4 games to 1.
Then and now
Fifty years ago, the Braves beat the Yankees in seven games for the team's only championship in Milwaukee. In 1957 there were:
– no series night games
– no free agency
– no divisional or league playoffs
no teams west of Kansas City, Mo.
no earflaps on batting helmets
Coldest game
38 degrees F. in Cleveland for Game 4 of the 1997 series between the Indians and Florida Marlins. [Editor's note: The original version gave the wrong date for this game.]
Five things you may not know
1. Only three players have ever been MVPs of the Series twice: Sandy Koufax, Bob Gibson, and Reggie Jackson.
2. No team that lost the first three series games ever came back to win.
3. Pirate Bill Mazeroski's ninth-inning solo home run in 1960 is still the only "walk-off" homer to end a seventh game in the series.
4. The first televised series was in 1947, Jackie Robinson's rookie season.
5. The World Series has not always used a best-of-seven format. It was best-of-nine in 1903, 1919, 1920, and 1921.
RSS feed
