With the start of the 2019 Major League Baseball season coming up in just a few days (except for the Seattle Mariners and Oakland Athletics, who already played two early games in Japan), I thought I'd do a post on this theme. Similar to the one I did on how many titles each NFL team has won, I figured it was high time to do the same for the MLB teams. But, it's not as simple as just counting up every World Series title each team has won. Because both the Cleveland Indians and the Kansas City Royals have won 2 World Series, but since the Indians have been playing since 1901, and the Royals since 1969, I think it's fair to say the Royals have had better success. Also, there's a similar problem with reckoning NFL title wins pre-Super Bowl, in that the National League started in 1876, and the American League in 1901. I don't think it's fair to discount these 19th century title wins for these National League teams, so I counted these up as well. Finally, in 1901, 1902, and 1904 no World Series were played between the American League and National League winners. So I'm listing these, too, as Championship Pennants, since we'll never know which team would have won a World Series between them. Finally, from 1882-1891 there was yet another professional baseball league, called the American Association. Some sources count this league as on par with the National League, and others don't. I'll play it both ways for those teams that came from the A.A. and later joined the National League (the St. Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Los Angeles Dodgers), and include the number without the A.A. totals, and with. Finally, because of an ugly labor dispute, there was no World Series played in 1994, and only about 70% of the season's game were played. Meaning we'll never know which teams would have won either the World Series, or even the league pennant. So I won't include this year for each team's title or pennant winning percentage.
Also, in these team lists I'll include different host cities, and different team names, but won't include every team name change if the city wasn't different. This is just for space constraints, since some teams changed their names many times. For example, in addition to moving from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, the Dodgers were at times known as the Athletics, the Grays, the Grooms, the Bridegrooms, the Superbas, and the Robins. The St. Louis Cardinals were formerly known as the Brown Stockings, the Browns, and rather arrogantly, the Perfectos. (The Browns name is particularly confusing, since the American League team based in St. Louis from 1901-1953 had that identical moniker.) The Chicago Cubs were known as the White Stockings (once again, predating the eventual American League team entry name) early on, then the Colts, and then the Orphans, for some reason. And the madness of the Red Scare in the 1950's affected baseball team names too--the Cincinnati Reds became the Red Stockings from 1954-58, lest fools like Joseph McCarthy accuse them of being Communists. Moving on, two of my favorite team names for defunct teams were the National League's Cleveland Spiders (this creature is feared by so many--it's perfectly intimidating) in the late 1890's, and the 1891 American Association's Cincinnati Kelly's Killers (their manager was King Kelly).
Anyway, let's get to the lists. This first one will list how many years each team has played up to and including 2018, minus one, if that team played in 1994, since they obviously couldn't win a pennant or World Series that year. Then I'll list how many "modern" pennants they've won, or how many pennants they won in years where they then went on to play in the World Series. Next I'll include Championship pennants, or National League titles from 1876-1902, and 1904, and American League pennants from 1901, 1902, and 1904. Then I'll just list World Series titles won. Numbers in parentheses for the St. Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Los Angeles Dodgers are for American Association years or titles.
American League:
Years "Modern" Championship World Series
Pennants Pennants Titles
Boston Red Sox 117 13 1 9
Balt. Orioles/NY Yankees 117* 40 0 27
Toronto Blue Jays 41 2 -- 2
Tampa Bay Rays 21 1 -- 0
Mil. Brewers/St. Louis
Browns/Baltimore Orioles 117 7 0 3
Cleveland Indians 117 6 0 2
Detroit Tigers 117 11 0 4
Wash. Senators/Minnesota
Twins 117 6 0 3
Chicago White Sox 117 5 1 3
Kansas City Royals 49 4 -- 2
Philly/KC/Oakland
Athletics 117 14 1 9
L.A./California/Anaheim
Angels 57 1 -- 1
Wash. Senators/Texas
Rangers 57 2 -- 0
Houston Astros 56 2 -- 1
Seattle Mariners 41 0 -- 0
National League:
New York Mets 56 5 -- 2
Montreal Expos/
Washington Nationals 49 0 -- 0
Boston/Milwaukee/
Atlanta Braves 142 9 8 3
Philadelphia Phillies 135 7 0 2
Florida/Miami Marlins 25 2 -- 2
St. Louis Cardinals 126 (136) 19 0 (4) 11
Cincinnati Reds 128 (136) 9 0 (1) 5
Chicago Cubs 142 11 6 3
Pittsburgh Pirates 131 (136) 7 3 (0) 5
Seattle Pilots/
Milwaukee Brewers 49 1 -- 0
Brooklyn/Los Angeles
Dodgers 128 (134) 20 3 (1) 6
New York/San Francisco
Giants 135 20 3 8
San Diego Padres 49 2 -- 0
Colorado Rockies 25 1 -- 0
Arizona Diamondbacks 21 1 -- 1
I should also mention that that 6 Pre-World Series, National League Championship pennants were won by teams that went out of business in the 19th century. For the record, the Providence Grays were champs in 1879 and 1884, the Detroit Wolverines were champs in 1887, and the Baltimore Orioles (not to be confused with the American League Baltimore Orioles of 1901 and 1902 that became the New York Yankees, OR the Baltimore Orioles that the American League St. Louis Browns became in 1954, and continue to play to this day) three-peated, in 1894, 1895, and 1896. Also, one of the American Association teams in the 1880's was the Toledo Blue Stockings. So we've had teams named the Brown Stockings, Red Stockings, White Stockings, and Blue Stockings at one time or another, and two still exit, albeit in the shorter "Sox" abbreviation. I don't understand professional baseball leagues' obsession with socks. Why not shirts, or pants, if you want to name your team after clothing, for some weird reason? Finally, during the 1880's the winners of the American Association and the National League played in a postseason championship, called the World Series, even. However, this was an informal, exhibition spectacle (the number of games in the series was also not fixed, and some series were ties), so I'm not including these results as valid of anything.
* Some folks reckon the New York Yankees as starting in 1903, or only having played 115 seasons in our reckoning, not counting 1994 as said before. Because the Baltimore Orioles of 1901-1902 did move to New York, but only a minority of the players, and only some of the coaches, team officials, etc. stayed on, too. It's a legitimate point, but I figured it was enough to barely count.
Anyway, here's the list, best to worst, of "modern" pennant winning percentage, or how many pennants (in years with a World Series played) every team won divided by the total number of possible pennant-winning years they ever played. Listed best to worst, and modern city/team name only.
1) New York Yankees .3509
2) San Francisco Giants .1754
2) Los Angeles Dodgers .1754
4) St. Louis Cardinals .1667
5) Oakland Athletics .1228
6) Boston Red Sox .1140
7) Detroit Tigers .0965
7) Chicago Cubs .0965
9) New York Mets .0892
10) Kansas City Royals .0816
11) Miami Marlins .0800
12) Atlanta Braves .0789
12) Cincinnati Reds .0789
14) Baltimore Orioles .0614
14) Philadelphia Phillies .0614
14) Pittsburgh Pirates .0614
17) Cleveland Indians .0526
17) Minnesota Twins .0526
19) Toronto Blue Jays .0488
20) Tampa Bay Rays .0476
20) Arizona Diamondbacks .0476
22) Chicago White Sox .0439
23) San Diego Padres .0408
24) Colorado Rockies .0400
25) Houston Astros .0357
26) Texas Rangers .0350
27) Milwaukee Brewers .0204
28) Los Angeles Angels .0175
29) Seattle Mariners .0000
30) Washington Nationals .0000
(I put Washington lower, because they've played more seasons than Seattle, so arguably their lack of pennants is worse.)
There was also a precursor league to the American League, which was the Western League. Baseball historians regard it firmly as a minor league, and therefore not at the same level as the American or National Leagues, or even the American Association. But it did birth several later American League clubs. The Chicago White Sox started as the Sioux City Cornhuskers, and the Cleveland Indians began as the Grand Rapids Rustlers. Similarly, the Kansas City Blues eventually became the Washington Senators/Minnesota Twins. The eventual Detroit Tigers and Baltimore Orioles also have their roots in the Western League. Since it's an inferior league, though, I won't include Western League titles in our lists of Championships.
Now we get to the Championship/World Series percentages for each team. So this percentage includes pre-World Series Championships (American League titles from 1901, 1902, and 1904 and National League titles from 1876-1902, and 1904) along with World Series wins, divided by the total number of seasons a team has played, minus the 1994 season.
1) New York Yankees .2308
2) St. Louis Cardinals .0873 (.1103)
3) Boston Red Sox .0855
3) Oakland Athletics .0855
5) San Francisco Giants .0815
6) Miami Marlins .0800
7) Atlanta Braves .0775
8) Los Angeles Dodgers .0703 (.0746)
9) Chicago Cubs .0634
10) Pittsburgh Pirates .0611 (.0588)
11) Toronto Blue Jays .0488
12) Arizona Diamondbacks .0476
13) Kansas City Royals .0408
14) Cincinnati Reds .0391 (.0441)
15) New York Mets .0357
16) Detroit Tigers .0342
16) Chicago White Sox .0342
18) Baltimore Orioles .0256
18) Minnesota Twins .0256
20) Houston Astros .0179
21) Los Angeles Angels .0175
22) Cleveland Indians .0171
23) Philadelphia Phillies .0148
24) Tampa Bay Rays .0000
25) Colorado Rockies .0000
26) Seattle Mariners .0000
27) Washington Nationals .0000
27) Milwaukee Brewers .0000
27) San Diego Padres .0000
30) Texas Rangers .0000
(As before, with teams that won no titles, I ranked the ones that had played fewer seasons higher, since they had less chances than the others.)
Now let's move on to longest title droughts. This refers to years between World Series titles, or in one case, years between either a Championship in the National League and World Series titles.
1) 107 years Chicago Cubs (1908-2016, not counting 1994)
2) 97 years Philadelphia Phillies (1883-1980)
3) 87 years Chicago White Sox (1917-2005, not counting 1994)
4) 85 years Boston Red Sox (1918-2004, not counting 1994)
5) 69+ years Cleveland Indians (1948-present, not counting 1994)
6) 66 years Mil. Brewers/St. Louis Browns/Baltimore Orioles (1901-66)
7) 63 years Wash. Senators/Minnesota Twins (1924-87)
8) 57+ years Wash. Senators/Texas Rangers (1961-present, not counting 1994)
9) 55 years NY/San Francisco Giants (1954-2010, not counting 1994)
9) 55 years Houston Astros (1962-2017, not counting 1994)
9) 55 years Brooklyn/L.A. Dodgers (1900-1955)
12) 48+ years Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals (1969-present, not counting 1994)
12) 48+ years Seattle Pilots/Milwaukee Brewers (1969-present, not counting 1994)
14) 43 years Boston/Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves (1914-57)
15) 41+ years Seattle Mariners (1977-present, not counting 1994)
And in another form, here's the seven teams that have never won a World Series or Championship pennant title:
Tampa Bay Rays
Washington Senators/Texas Rangers
Seattle Mariners
Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals
Seattle Pilots/Milwaukee Brewers
San Diego Padres
Colorado Rockies
And only two teams that have never even won a "modern" pennant:
Seattle Mariners
Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals
So, going by either "modern" pennants, or by World Series/Championship pennant wins, the best team ever is, not shockingly, the New York Yankees, and second isn't even close. As for the worst, we'd have to go with the seven teams that have never won a World Series/Championship pennant, and especially the Seattle Mariners and Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals, who have never even won a "modern" pennant. (The Expos/Nationals have only won a single playoff series, even, back in the weird, expanded 1981 postseason, which was different due to the labor dispute.) Although, it pains me to admit this, but my beloved Philadelphia Phillies are by far the worst team of the original 16 MLB teams, with only 2 Championship pennants/World Series titles in their 135 eligible years. Also, of course, there are other ways to determine the worst teams. You could go by overall won-loss record, for example. But I think going by "modern" pennants, Championship pennants, and World Series titles is the best way, so that's what I went with. Enjoy the upcoming 2019 Major League Baseball season!
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