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October 28, 2006

The Worst World Series Winner Ever?

T
he 2006 St. Louis Cardinals -- with a regular-season record of 83-79 -- now own the title of the World Series Champion with the lowest regular-season winning percentage at .512. They've displaced the 1987 Minnesota Twins (who, coincidently, beat the Cards that year). The Twins won only .525 percent of its games (85-77) during the '87 season. Behind Minnesota is the 2000 New York Yankees, who won their third title in a row and fourth in five years, with a winning percentage of .540 (87-74).

The worst loser of the Classic? That's easy. The 1973 New York Mets, who finished the season 82-79 for a winning percentage of .509 -- in the season that no one wanted the NL East title.

On August 14th, the Mets were in last place, 8.5 games behind the Cardinals. But behind Seaver, Koosman, Matlack and Tug McGraw, the New Yorkers played .688 ball down the stretch, going 31-14 -- and closing the year with a 13-4 run. They beat a superior Cincinnati Reds team 3 games to 2 in the best-of-5 NLCS -- a series highlighted by a brawl at second base between the sliding Pete Rose and Mets SS Buddy Harrelson in the 5th inning of game 3 (along with the Reds' Pedro Borbon biting off a chunk of the bill of a Mets player's cap as the umpires broke up the fight). In the World Series, the Mets led the eventual winner, the Oakland A's, 3 games to 2 when the series returned to Oakland for games 6 and 7. The Mets started Seaver and Matlack. But they were out pitched by the A's Catfish Hunter and Ken Holtzman.

Posted by shertaugh at October 28, 2006 2:43 PM

Comments

I'd still give the honors to the 1987 Twins. The 2006 Cards may have won fewer games, but the Twins hold the distinction of winning the World Series despite being outscored during the regular season. They're not only the sole World Series winner to manage that, they're the sole pennant winner (but not the sole division winner: 1984 Royals, 1997 Giants and 2006 Padres managed it, and possibly others).

Posted by: Syd Henderson at October 29, 2006 5:47 PM