The 1906 World Champion Chicago White Sox
There are people claiming that the Philadelphia Phillies can't beat the Houston Astros in the 2022 World Series, because the Astros have a much better record. The Astros went 106-56, and are 7-0 in the postseason thus far; while the Phillies went 87-75. That's 19 fewer wins in the regular season.
I guess they weren't paying attention: In this postseason, the Phillies have already beaten the St. Louis Cardinals, 93-69; the Atlanta Braves, 101-61; and the San Diego Padres, 89-73, all with better records. Throw in the fact that the Phils had to win an additional postseason round, and the win totals are now Astros 113, Phillies 96. Maybe the Phillies don't look like as good a team as the Astros, but they're not going to be intimidated by the Astros' record.
Besides, it's a new round: Both teams start out 0-0.
And it's not like there haven't been big upsets in the World Series before. It's worth noting that some of these weren't considered "upsets" at the time, for various reasons, including the experience of the eventual winning team. This is only by won-lost record:
Top 10 World Series Upsets By Record
10. 2003: 10 games. New York Yankees 101, Florida Marlins 91. Marlins won in 6 games. The 1945 Detroit Tigers, the 1985 Kansas City Royals, and the 2011 St. Louis Cardinals also won 10 fewer games than the teams they ended up beating in the World Series, needing 7 games to do it. The 2003 Marlins needed 6 games, so I'm ranking them ahead.
9. 1988: 10 games. Oakland Athletics 104, Los Angeles Dodgers 94. Dodgers won in 5 games.
8. 1987: 10 games. St. Louis Cardinals 95, Minnesota Twins 85. Twins won in 7 games. In spite of the number of games required, I'm ranking the '87 Twins ahead of the '88 Dodgers and the '03 Marlins because the Twins set a record for fewest games won by a World Series winner in a full 162-game season, a record since broken.
7. 1995: 10 games. Cleveland Indians 100, Atlanta Braves 90. This season was shortened to 144 games by a strike, so the margin could have been even larger. The Braves won in 6 games.
6. 1974: 12 games. Los Angeles Dodgers 102, Oakland Athletics 90. A's won in 5 games.
5. 1990: 12 games. Oakland Athletics 103, Cincinnati Reds 91. Reds swept in 4 straight.
4. 2006: 12 games. Detroit Tigers 95, St. Louis Cardinals 83. Cardinals won in 5 games. Their 83 wins in a full 162-game season broke the 1987 Twins' record for fewest by a World Series winner.
3. 2019: 14 games. Houston Astros 107, Washington Nationals 93. Nationals won in 7 games.
2. 1954: 14 games. Cleveland Indians 111, New York Giants 97. Giants swept in 4 straight.
1. 1906: 23 wins. Chicago Cubs 116, Chicago White Sox 93. White Sox won in 6 games.
Okay, so a 19-or-more-game difference has only been done once before, and that, 116 years ago. But it has happened, and enough differences of at least 10 games have been overcome -- one of those against, for all intents and purposes, this Astro team, by a National League Eastern Division team. And the Astros lost last year's World Series to yet another NL East team, the Braves.
So don't tell me the Phillies don't have a chance. They do.
1 comment:
Plus after just one game the Phillies already one upped us by winning game 1.
With that said, there is something interesting about Judge's fly out in Game 2 that even Realmuto talked about in regards to his game winning homer. It may not guaranteed a win for the Yankees had the ball gone out in Game 2 but it deserves some discussion as Yankee haters will rather ignore it, especially when it relates to how the Astros' ballpark had the roof open that game while it was closed in the Game 1 of the WS.
Granted knowing Boone, he likely would have threw that game away anyway to pay off whatever gambling debt he might have owed.
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