The best World Series ever is likely a debate that will never be truly settled.
And that is because America’s pastime has been around for as long as some of us can remember. A long, grueling 162 game regular season, and a postseason playoff run all lead up to seven chilly October nights where every team in the MLB wants to be.
The World Series, the crown jewel of major league baseball is an event that takes place once a year to determine who will reign as the best team in baseball until next October. Some players will win every individual accolade including All-Star selections, Golden Gloves, Silver Slugger awards, Batting Titles, Cy Young awards, and everything else that comes with excelling individually in baseball.
However, a World Series title marks a player’s career like no other and establishes them in the annals of baseball history forever. Over the years, we have seen many competitive, high-drama moments in the month of October, but which is considered the best World Series ever? Using my own memory and compiled resources of MLB post season knowledge, I’ve constructed what I think is an accurate list of the top seven best World Series ever played.
Let’s get this started:
Number 7 on the best world series:
#7: Coming in at number seven on my list is in 1912 between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Giants. Fun fact about this series, they were actually eight games played. game two of the seven-game set was suspended due to darkness and ended in a tie, as this was before they had adequate lighting for night games above the field.
Pitcher Christy Matthewson of the New York Giants was by far the most valuable asset on either side during this series, as he pitched 28 2/3 innings and had a .94 ERA during the Fall Classic. Despite Matthewson‘s historic performance, the Giants ended up losing the series to the Red Sox by a score of three games to two. The final game went to extra innings but it was the Red Sox who came out on top after some crucial miss cues by giants fielders.
#6 of the Best World Series Ever: Tigers vs. Cardinals (1968)
In at number six, is 1968 between the Detroit Tigers and the St. Louis Cardinals. 1968 was considered the year of the picture with “sky-high” mounds and deep ballparks which really limited MLB offenses in a way not seen since the aforementioned Christy Matthewson was in his prime.
Bob Gibson posted a 1.12 ERA in the regular season, which at the time was a major league record for a full season ERA of a starting pitcher. In game one, Gibson’s reputation preceded him as he threw a shutout and struck out a whopping 17 batters. At one point in the series, St. Louis was up three games to one and all hope for the Detroit Tigers looked lost. The down-but-not-out Detroit Tigers ended up winning games five, six, and seven, and even beat the otherwise dominant Bob Gibson in the rubber match which made the ‘68 series one for the ages.
#5: Phillies vs. Blue Jays (1993)
The series that comes in at number five on the list was one that involves one of the more entertaining games in recent memory. In 1993, the Philadelphia Phillies and the Toronto Blue Jays were the two remaining teams come October. The specific game I’m talking about is Game Four which is regarded as one of the wildest World Series games ever played. Game Four featured four different lead changes and five different instances of a team scoring three or more an inning. By the eighth inning, the Phillies had a 14 to 9 lead and seemed to have gotten the better of the Jays in an unforgettable game four. Just when people thought the game couldn’t get any more surprising, the Phillies bullpen imploded and Toronto rallied off six runs in the eighth inning and ended up winning the contest 15 to 14. On top of one of the wildest games in the history of the fall classic, Joe Carter won the series on a walk off three-run homerun in game six cementing him as an October legend forever.
#4 Best World Series Ever: Yankees vs. Dodgers (1956)
At the fourth spot we have the 1956 showdown between the New York Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers. This was the fourth time in a row that the Yankees and the Dodgers had played each other in the fall classic at the time. The series was beginning to have a Cavaliers versus Warriors type of feel, where both teams would inevitably meet at the end of the season for all the marbles. After four games, the series is tied 2-2 which would set up a Game Five that would be remembered for a long time to come. The starting pitcher for the Yankees in game five was Don Larsen who had proven himself, but wasn’t exactly a standout pitcher. He was set to face a Dodgers offense that featured Duke Snider, Roy Campanella, Gil Hodges, and Carl Furillo who had torn apart opposing pitchers all season. Aside from facing these formidable hitters, the Yankees had to face the Cy Young runner-up Sal “The Barber” Maglie on the mound. Don Larsen went on to throw a perfect game in Game Five, 27 up 27 down. This is still the only perfect game ever recorded in World Series history, and it propelled the Yankees to win it all in seven games.
Number 3 on the best world series:
The 2011 World Series between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Texas Rangers featuring one of the most surreal comebacks in recent memory. The unlikely hero David Freese, propelled the Cardinals to win the most coveted prize in major-league baseball in seven games. It was what he did in Game Six however which will go down in history. Game Six of the 2011 series is in the conversation for Best World Series Game of All Time. Down two runs, one strike away from elimination in the bottom of the ninth-inning Freese hit a frozen rope into right center and slid into third for a game tying to run triple. Then later on in the bottom of the 11th Freese blasted a homerun to dead center and Joe Buck had the call and proclaimed “We will see you tomorrow night,” which was eerily similar to a call his father Jack Buck had made 20 years earlier.
Number 2 on the best world series:
Remember when I said Joe Buck had made a similar call to his father but 20 years later, spoiler alert! In 1991, the Minnesota Twins faced off against the Atlanta Braves in a battle royale of a series that featured five one run games and three games that went into extra innings. Take a second to read that last sentence again because words do not properly do it justice, my goodness. Game Six of that series was an epic battle in itself as the Minnesota Twins faced elimination as the game stretched on to the 11th inning. That was when twins outfielder Kirby Puckett launched a walk-off homerun that triggered Jack Buck’s famous call “We will see you tomorrow night!” The next night Game Seven proved to be one of the greatest defensive baseball games of all time as both teams battled to a scoreless tie through nine innings. The tie was finally broken in the 10th on a single from Gene Larkin to give Minnesota the crown.
The Best World Series
Well here we are. Number one on the list. I know many people have their opinions on which series should be in this spot. However, I don’t see how anything can beat a 108 year World Series drought by the Chicago Cubs that was snapped in 2016. In this World Series both teams astonishingly scored the same amount of runs. Whatever team was on the road dominated, with the road team winning five games in this series out of seven which is extremely rare in World Series history. The Cleveland Indians jumped out to a three games to one lead, which seems nearly insurmountable in the team game of baseball with so many independent and dependent variables each and every night. Cubs fans who had been waiting 108 years for this, after seeing their team go down three games to one they thought it was just another year of let downs and depression. Not only did the Cubs come all the way back to beat the Indians, they beat them at home in as good of a game seven that has ever been played in the history of the fall classic. Sports writer Jonah Keri wrote, “The Chicago Cubs defeated the Cleveland Indians 8-7 in a mind-blowing, nerve-jangling, heart-stopping mess of a game, a 10-inning acid trip that tested the limits of your sanity, made baseball history and ended 108 years of anxiety.” Enough said.