You are here: Home
/ Features
/ My Top Five Fall Classics In MLB History
My Top Five Fall Classics In MLB History
Hey baseball fans!
Today, I want to tell you about my favorite Fall Classics in baseball history!! My only rule is this: no World Series will be in this list that happened in the last ten years. So, let’s get it started with Number Five.
Number Five
: The 1954 World Series
Matchup: Giants vs. Indians
Winner (how many games): Giants (4)
Why? This World Series is by far the most lopsided in history. You would’ve expected the Tribe with 111 wins to crush the 97-win Giants, right? Wrong. With the help of “The Catch” by Willie Mays
to save two runs and preserve a Game One victory, the Giants pitchers held Larry Doby
and the Cleveland offense to nine runs, while the Indians pitchers surrendered 21 runs to the Giants. In other words, the Giants pulled off arguably the greatest upset in World Series history.
Number Four
: The 1986 World Series
Matchup: Mets vs. Red Sox
Winner (how many games): Mets (7)
Why? Thank you 1986 Mets for keeping the Curse of the Bambino alive! In other words, the Mets and their astounding pitching (and a little anti-Buckner Babe Ruth
luck) dominated the Sox in one of the most exciting Fall Classics ever. The Mets may have gotten lucky in Game Six thanks to Mookie Wilson
, but they played hard throughout the Series, which earned them their second World Championship.
Number Three
: The 1945 World Series
Matchup: Cubs vs. Tigers
Winner (how many games): Tigers (7)
Why? In a Series with what seemed like no pitching whatsoever, Hank Greenberg
, one of my favorite players of all-time, played like he was 20 years old. He was 34 and had just came back from military service! Anyway, the Tigers lineup exploded with 32 runs, while the Cubs got 29. It was a very exciting Series because of how many runs were scored in each game. Also, I’m happy that the Tigers won that Series, because it was one of the last shining moments that Hank Greenberg had in his career.
Number Two
: The 1979 World Series
Matchup: Pirates vs. Orioles
Winner (how many games): Pirates (7)
Why? With the help of should-have-been Manager of the Year and the NL MVP, Willie Stargell
, the “We Are Family” Pittsburgh Pirates upset the Baltimore O’s in the first Pirates Fall Classic win since the passing of Roberto Clemente
. Even when the underdog Pirates were down 3-1 entering Game Five, they were optimistic. The Stargell-led Pirates copied the Steel Curtain in the NFL by winning a sports championship for Pittsburgh. Want to know why the Buccos won? Simple: They were family.
NUMBER ONE
: The 1993 World Series
Matchup: Phillies vs. Blue Jays
Winner (how many games): Blue Jays (6)
Why? When a World Series ends with a walk-off homer, then the series in going to be remembered forever. Considering that the first time a Fall Classic ended like this was against the Yanks (stupid Bill Mazeroski
- which of course means that Series cannot make my list), then the 1993 Series is the greatest ever. But, there has to be more, right? Yes; the walk-off homer just starts the reasoning. The Blue Jays had won the ’92 WS and were expected to crush the Phils. It wasn’t exactly the outcome that was expected, but the Series was great. Three things were magical:
1) My favorite AL player of all-time, Paul Molitor
, won WS MVP.
2) Game Five was a contest won by the Blue Jays, 15-14, the most runs by two teams combined in a World Series game.
3) “Touch ’em all, Joe! You’ll never hit a bigger home run in your life!” In other words, Joe Carter
hit a three-run shot off Mitch Williams
to win the series.
Also, despite these heroics from the Toronto lineup, Jack Morris
got his third straight ring! Are you hearing this, BBWAA? In a nutshell, it was great for manager Cito Gaston
and the rest of Toronto, but it really stunk for Wild Thing and the Phillies.
Well, there you have it, my five favorite World Series in MLB history. Let me know what you think in the comments. Thanks for reading Baseball with Matt where I’m giving you “all the buzz on what wuzz.” (Shout-out to Andy Abrams (the 2nd time for him) for coming up with my new sign-off catch phrase.)
Matt Nadel is a 13 year old baseball history kid blogger from Springfield, NJ who writes two baseball blogs under the name, Baseball with Matt. Matt started his original blog
back in April 2012 when he saw that a lot of his friends didn’t know anything about baseball history and he thought that a blog would be a fun way to educate kids and adults about baseball history. After posting nearly 85 times, he was introduced to John Thorn, the official historian for MLB, and John liked Matt’s blog and arranged for Matt to have his own Pro Blog on MLB
, making Matt the youngest Pro blogger on MLB.com. You can also follow Matt on Twitter @BaseballwMatt. Baseball with Matt is a member of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance.
Filed under Features
, General
· Tagged with baseball
, Baseball History
, Bill Buckner
, Blue Jays
, Cito Gaston
, Cubs
, Giants
, Hall of Fame
, Hank Greenberg
, history
, Jack Morris
, Joe Carter
, John McNarma
, Mookie Wilson
, Paul Molitor
, Phillies
, Pirates
, Roberto Clemente
, Tigers
, Willie Mays
, Willie St
, World Series
Enjoyed your interesting top World Series picks. At first glance it seemed to me your pick of the ’54 Series was a bit odd, since it was such a complete blowout. But you are right, Mays’s catch of Wertz’s monster blast in game 1 probably was the momentum changer for the whole Series, which produced one of the biggest upsets in World Series history. Without listing all of my favorites, let me just say I include the ’56 Series. Why? Larsons’s perfecto, which Mantle’s bat and glove helped him win, and the fact that it went seven games, and it was “payback” for the Bums who won in ’55. Great stuff for an 8 year-old kid who worshiped the Yankees.
I look forward to your articles, and I hope you get as much fun out of writing them as I get out of reading them.
1991 World Series should be at the top, no doubt. Seven-game series with every game a close one.
Likewise, the 1982 Series was a great one with two fairly evenly-matched teams.
I think 1975 would have been a good addition, as well, since that featured one of the most memorable home runs of all-time in a 7-game series that people still talk about to this day.
Thanks Clyde!
David – I may need to do a top 10 and add some of yours