I know this has been done before but the 1960 thread made me curious.

 

It's been said that, statistically, it's very rare that teams go back-to-back in WS titles. What exactly are those statistics? Who did it last? To my memory, it has to have been the Yankees.

 

And if so, what was it about them that enabled them to do it? Meaning: obviously their pitching staff was not "fatigued" because of the previous long season. Or were they?

 

Have at it, experts!

A "repeat" is rare, but its about time a team puts a Brick into the window of that theory

Here's a list of WS winners starting in 1903. It does look pretty rare, I'm not sure how you would do that stats on this, since, really, it's not 100% chance about who will make the playoffs. Generally, I would think that teams that were in the playoffs in previous years will, again make the playoffs because of good management, players, etc.

 

Interesting question, though.

In recent history, teams have made it to back-to-back WS pretty regularly.

 

- The Yankees made it to 4 straight World Series (98-01), and won 3 straight.

 

- The Braves made it back to back twice (91-92) and (95-96) winning once.

 

- The Blue Jays won back to back in 92-93.

 

- The A's made it to 3 straight from 88-90 winning one.

 

The Sox have a great chance because the team that makes it out of the AL is going to more than likely win the WS.

 

If you go back to the 70's, it featured 4 repeats in a row (OAK 72-74, CIN 75-76, and NYY 77-78).

 

I don't know what you consider rare, but there were 21 repeats from 1903 - 2005, which is over 20% of the time or about one every 5 years. The last repeat was 6 years ago.

 

Also, 25 teams returned to the WS and lost, so 46 out of the 206 teams that have played in the World Series, played the year prior (over 22%). Thats almost one repeat team playing every 4 years. There has not been a repeat team since 2001, 5 years ago.

 

So the odds are actually in favor of a repeat sooner than later.

Edited July 21, 200619 yr by RME JICO

Wow! Nice work.

 

I guess it's not that "rare" after all. Somebody was casually mentioning that and I accepted it as fact, since the only team I can remember doing it was the Yankees.

 

Well I guess it's not that impossible after all!

 

Cheers.

Wow! Nice work.

 

I guess it's not that "rare" after all. Somebody was casually mentioning that and I accepted it as fact, since the only team I can remember doing it was the Yankees.

 

Well I guess it's not that impossible after all!

 

Cheers.

The good thing about the Sox is they are the only ones that have any chance at repeating this year. All the other teams have zero chance.

its about time a team puts a Brick into the window of that theory

 

I don't know if it's just because I'm tired, but that made me laugh.

No you're right; made me laugh too.

Since 1901 there have been 100 World Series winners with a chance to repeat. There was no WS in 1904 or 1994.

 

Here's what the winner did following year:

 

21 Won World Series

38 Won League Penant

15 Won Division

2 Won Wild Card

 

Here are finishes in their respective leagues / divisions:

 

1st 41

2nd 24

3rd 20

4th 5

5th 3

6th 4

7th 3

 

The teams that finished 7th were the 64 Dodgers, 65 Cardinals and 67 Orioles. Thats one record that can't be broken.

IIRC, there was no WS during the latter part of WWII either.

Edited July 22, 200619 yr by knightni

IIRC, there was no WS during the latter part of WWII either.

There was a lot of debate after Pearl Harbor about whether pro baseball should be played during war time. FDR settled the matter with this January 15, 1942 letter to Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis and the games went on.

 

Baseball Almanac

 

Wartime WS Winners:

 

1942 St. Louis Cardinals

1943 New York Yankees

1944 St. Louis Cardinals

1945 Detroit Tigers

ok.. wasnt sure.