The top ten postseason series of all-time

Well, it’s that time of the year again—the postseason. Every year I hope for some exciting, awesome unforgettable playoff action. Wondering/thinking/hoping for great postseason baseball is on my mind, and when something is on my mind, that can only mean one thing is coming—a list.

It’s a simple question: What are the best postseason series of all-time? To date, 262 October series have been completed—the current World Series is number 263. What are the 10 best?

Rather than just arbitrarily come up with a list, I figured I’d come up with a formula. No formula can be perfect or even close, but it helps organize things in one’s mind. This is loosely inspired by Bill James’ old Hall of Fame monitor, or some various lists Joe Posnanski has done on his blog.

I’m not claiming mine works as well as James’ Hall of Fame monitor (or even some of Joe Poz’s lists), but it works effectively. Virtually all the info that goes into it can be found just by looking at the overview for a given postseason at Baseball-Reference.com without checking on individual games.

I can claim to have some idea what makes a postseason game great. Years ago, I did a series of articles here at THT on the ten best Game Ones in World Series history, the ten best Game Twos, the ten best Game Threesand so on through the ten best Game Sevens.

In the process, you can see patterns as to what makes games memorable. Most notably, almost all really famous postseason games contain some kind of tense late-inning drama. There are a few exceptions, but only a few.

I don’t want to bore everyone with the math involved—for those interested, the exact formula is listed down in the references and resources section at the article’s conclusion. It’s not intended to be anything especially complex. For here, let’s just note the factors it contains.

Several factors go into it. Late dramatics are prioritized—if the game ends on a walk-off play, if there are lead changes or ties in the eighth inning or later, if there are extra innings, these things all help. A game gets points for having a close final score. The longer a series lasts and the more elimination games it features, the more points.

Is there great pitching? Points are awarded for shutouts and for holding the opposition to few hits. Any great hitting performances? Points for any time a batter gets multiple homers in a game. If it’s a back-and-forth game with many lead changes and ties, points for that.

They’re not all weighted equally, but as feels appropriate. Again, you can scroll down below to see the exact math. An average series scores at 45 points. One series in baseball history comes in at zero.

There’s a heavy domination of recent postseason series on this list. In part its random happenstance, and in part it’s due to the larger number of postseason series. Three-quarters of all series come from the divisional era. Perhaps more importantly, nearly half of all best-of-seven series have occurred since 1986, and longer series have more chances to score higher.

Before getting to the top ten, here’s the runner-up ten, ranked from 20th to 11th:

    Series	Winner Loser	Score
20. 1956 W.S.	NYY	BRK	 93.2
19. 2009 ALCS	NYY	LAA	 93.8
18. 1972 W.S.	OAK	CIN	 96.8
17. 2003 NLCS	FLA	CHC	 98.3
16. 1972 ALCS	OAK	DET	 98.3
15. 1986 ALCS	BOX	CAL	  103
14. 2003 ALDS	BOX	OAK	103.3
13. 1980 NLCS	PHI	HOU	  105
12. 1985 ALCS 	KCR	TOR	108.3
11. 2008 ALCS	TBR	BOX	110.3

Let’s briefly pause. Based on the list above and your own knowledge of baseball history, care to guess what series might make the top ten below? Take a few seconds to come up with your own list before scrolling down.

Ready? OK, now for the ten best postseason series of all-time:

10. 1997 ALCS: Indians over the Orioles in six games. 110.8 points.

Did you guess this one? Me neither. I’d never heard of this series. (The late 1990s were a low point for my following of baseball). This was filled with near-constant tension and plenty of late drama.

Normally I won’t recap the series—most of these are already really famous and it takes to long. But since this one is obscure, let’s look at it.

A Hardball Times Update
Goodbye for now.

Game One was the least eventful game in the series, notable solely for great pitching by the Orioles, who won 3-0.

Things get a little more interesting in Game Two. The Indians early 2-0 lead is erased by Baltimore, who went up 4-2. In the top of the eighth, the Indians score three for a 5-4 win.

Game Three was even more exciting still. The Indians took a 1-0 lead into the ninth inning, only to see Baltimore push the tying run across on a Brady Anderson double. Cleveland won three innings later on a walk-off steal of home by Marquis Grissom. Yes, you read that correctly—a walk-off steal of home. Don’t see that happen every day. In fact, I believe it’s the only postseason game in history to end on a walk-off steal of home.

In Game Four, the Indians won their third straight game in dramatic fashion. They entered the ninth up 7-6, when Baltimore tied it in the top of the ninth for the second straight game. For the second straight game, it was all for naught. There was no extra innings this time, as Sandy Alomar, Jr. belted a walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth for an 8-7 win.

Game Five was the first possible elimination game of the series, as Baltimore needed a win to stay alive. They got it, with a narrow 4-2 victory. It nearly was a third straight walk-off win for Cleveland, as they scored twice in the bottom of the ninth and had runners on second and third when the game ended.

Game Six was yet another tension-filled game. For nine innings, neither side could score, causing the second straight extra-inning contest. Heck, Cleveland only had two hits at that point. They got their third in the 11th though, when Tony Fernandez belted a solo homer for a 1-0 win and the pennant.

It’s stuff like this that makes me use some sort of mathematical formula for figure out the best series. Sure, no formula is perfect, but aside from some Indians or Orioles fans, who’d ever think to include this in a list of ten greatest postseason series of all-time? Looking at it, though, it has a solid case.

9. 1924 World Series: Senators over the Giants in seven games. 112.8 points.

This is the only pre-divisional play series to make the list. If you’re curious, here’s a list of the highest-scoring postseason series by decade, 1900s-60s:

Decade	Series	             Winner	Loser	  Pts
1900s	1908 World Series	CHC	DET	   49
1910s	1912 World Series	BOX	NYG	 99.7
1920s	1924 World Series	WAS	NYG	112.8
1930s	1935 World Series	DET	CHC	 72.8
1940s	1947 World Series	NYY	BRK	 72.7
1950s	1956 World Series	NYY	BRK	 93.2
1960s	1960 World Series	PIT	NYY	 84.5

The 1924 Fall Classic featured two extra-inning games, including its Game Seven, which wins my vote as the greatest Game Seven of them all. A third game ended on a walk-off double by Roger Peckinpaugh in the bottom of the ninth. Prior to 1975, it was the only World Series with two walk-off victories.

8. 2004 NLCS: Cardinals over the Astros in seven games. 114 points.

This Cardinals-Astros series set an LCS record that still stands with two walk-off home runs. It also happened in the 1988 World Series, but that’s it.

In fact, the walk-off home run is the most likely way to ensure a game becomes a classic. Think for a few seconds, what are some of the most famous World Series games you can think of? There’s the Carlton Fisk game, the Kirk Gibson game, the Bill Mazeroski game—all walk-off homers. Those shots score really well (and even more if it comes in extra innings), which is why the 2004 NLCS makes the top ten.

Both games ending with walk-off dingers in the 2004 NLCS were rather impressive contests even aside from the game-ending blast. Game Five was one of the greatest pitching duels ever. Entering the bottom of the ninth, not only was it a double shutout, but a double one-hitter. After a walk and a single, a Jeff Kent three-run dinger won it for Houston.

The next game ended on 12th-inning walk-off home run by Jim Edmonds. The only reason that one went 12 frames was because Houston tied it in the top of the ninth.

There was also a lot of back-and-forth in this series. Ten times a team trailing came back to either tie the score or take the lead outright, which ties the 1980 NLCS and Boston’s win in the 1999 ALDS for the second-most comebacks to at least tie in a postseason series.

7. 2004 ALCS: Red Sox over the Yankees in seven games. 124 points.

Rather famously, this is the only time a team came back from a three-games-to-none deficit to win it all. It’s the only series with four potential elimination games.

Two of its games ended in walk-off hits, which also helps. Both those games also saw late-inning comebacks in regulation. The comebacks in Game Four and Game Five are so famous that is isn’t worth recapping them.

One quick note, because my memory played tricks on me with this one. I thought both comebacks ended on walk-off home runs, but that wasn’t the case. David Ortiz belted a walk-off home run in Game Four, and a walk-off single in Game Five. He did, however, belt another walk-off homer earlier in the postseason, in Game Three of the 2004 ALDS over the Angels.

In all, the 2004 postseason featured six walk-off hits, five of which were home runs. Nice.

6. 1986 NLCS: Mets over the Astros in six games. 132 points.

Only twice in history has a postseason series gone at least six games with all its contests decided by two runs or fewer. This is one, and the other we’ll see later on. In all, four of the games in the NLCS came down to one run, and two runs decided the other pair of games.

It featured a pair of extra-inning games that combined for a postseason record 10 innings of extra play. So even though this was a six-game series, it had more innings in it than a typical seven-game showdown.

My hunch is that this series is underrated by my system. You don’t get any points for comebacks within a game that fall short, and this had one of the most exciting thwarted comebacks of all-time. In the 16th inning of Game Six, the Mets scores thrice in the top of the frame, only to see Houston score two in the bottom of the inning and load the bases before the Mets shut them down.

It’s part of what made Game Six arguably the greatest game ever, but comebacks that don’t come all the way back don’t score here.

5. 1995 ALDS: Mariners over the Yankees in five games. 132.7 points.

Wait—five-game series? Really? Yes, really.

Fun fact: This series set an all-time postseason record. Thirteen times, the trailing team rallied to either tie the score or take the lead. That’s the most, and it’s the most by a good margin. No other series has more than 10. In the 1995 ALDS, six times the trailing team tied, and seven times they took the lead.

Plus, the series featured two ridiculously exciting extra-inning games full of plenty of drama after the ninth inning.

Since baseball went to three rounds of playoffs in 1995, there have been nine times all the LDS in a given year didn’t add up to the 132.7 points of the 1995 Mariners-Yankees ALDS. Of the 84 best-of-five postseason series in history, only 10 score half as many points as this one, and only three have three-fourths of the points of this one. Yeah, it was a nice series.

4. 2001 World Series: Diamondbacks over the Yankees in seven games. 134.7 points.

This memorably featured three walk-off hits, including one home run. The two Yankee walk-off wins came in extra innings, and in each case the game lasted that long because New York tied the contests in the bottom of the ninth. Arizona’s walk-off, of course, was Game Seven, in which Arizona scored twice to turn a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 win.

In other words, three times a team entered the bottom of the ninth trailing but went on to win the game. That’s never happened before or since in the postseason.

This even scores well in some of the more minor categories. For instance, a series gets one point every time a team is held to exactly three hits, and that happened a record-tying three times in this series. (It also happened in the infamous 1919 World Series thrown by the Black Sox).

3. 1975 World Series: Reds over the Red Sox in seven games. 135.7 points.

Oh yeah, this one. It’s one of the most iconic series ever. In my system, the 1975 World Series scores well in several categories.

Most notably, it’s tied for the lead in ninth-inning points with 26. In Game Two, the Reds scored twice in the top of the ninth to turn a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 win. The next game, the Red Sox scored twice in the ninth to tie the game 5-5, only to lose 6-5 in extra innings. Finally, in Game Seven, the Reds broke a 3-3 deadlock by scoring the championship-claiming run in the top of the ninth.

Plus, there’s the legendary Game Six, in which both teams took turns coming back from three-run deficits before ending on Carlton Fisk’s legendary walk-off home run off the foul pole in the 12th inning.

Five games were decided by one run, and another contest featured a complete game shutout. Not bad.

2. 1991 World Series: Twins over the Braves in seven games. 137.5 points.

This scores as the greatest World Series in history. Given how many of the games went down to the wire, that’s not too surprising. Four games ended on a walk-off hit of some sort, the most by any series in October-dom. As an added bonus, one was a walk-off home run (by Kirby Puckett in Game Six), which is worth extra.

Rather fitting for a series with so many walk-off winners, five of its games were decided by one run, including its famous 10-inning, 1-0 Game Seven with Jack Morris tossing a complete-game shutout for the Twins over the Braves.

It’s also fitting that Game Seven went into extra innings. It was the third game of the series to do that, an all-time record in the World Series. Only the 1980 NLCS can top it, with four games that went beyond nine innings.

1. 1999 NLCS: Braves over the Mets in six games. 147.3 points.

This series coming in first is an upset, because it didn’t even last seven games. It still managed to pack more drama into six contests than any other series has in seven.

Remember how the 1986 NLCS was one of only two series to have all its games decided by two runs or fewer? Well, this is the other one. This series actually is a bit more impressive, because it had five one-run games, whereas 1986 had four.

What’s really sets the 1999 NLCS series apart is how much late-inning drama it contained. Three times, a team tied the score in the eighth inning. Three times, a team took the lead in the eighth inning. Twice a contest went into extra innings. Both those contests ended in walk-off wins.

And the walk-off extra inning wins weren’t even ordinary walk-off extra-inning wins. Only ten times in postseason history has a team fallen behind in the top half of an extra inning only to rally for the victory in the bottom of the frame. One of them came in Game Five of the 1999 NLCS, when the Mets won 4-3 in 15 innings after Atlanta took a 3-2 lead in the top of the 15th inning.

Only nine times has a team fallen behind in the top half of an extra inning only to tie it and force further extra innings. One of them came in Game Six of the 1999 NLDS. A Met run in the top of the 10th put them ahead 9-8, but Atlanta tied it then before winning on their pennant winning walk-off walk in the 11th inning.

Nothing like that has ever happened in back-to-back games, except for here. There really is nothing quite like the end of the 1999 NLCS.

References & Resources
All info comes from Baseball-Reference.com.

As for the formula itself:

Most of this is straightforward, except for the math on comebacks. I did the most research there and so spent more time on its math. Let’s save that for last and do the easier stuff first.

A series gets five points for every elimination game after the first one. (Since all series have to have at least one elimination game, it’s no achievement to have one).

A one-run game is worth three points, plus an additional point if the final score is 1-0. A two-run difference is worth one point.

A walk-off win is worth 10 points, plus an additional five points if it’s a walk-off home run. (Walk-off homers are the only part you can’t find just by looking at the overview for a postseason series on its given page at Baseball-Reference.com.)

If a team ties the score in the ninth inning, it’s six points. If they take the lead, it’s seven points. Thus, if a team is down by a run entering the ninth and takes the lead, that’s 13 points total—six for tying and seven for the lead. Technically, a game can get 26 points in one ninth inning. If a 2-1 game entering the ninth becomes 3-2 after the top of the frame, and then 4-3 after it, that’s two ties and two leads taken in the ninth. (Plus whatever additional points you can get for the walk-off hit). No single ninth inning has ever generated 26 points, but it’s possible.

If a team ties the score in the eighth inning, that’s three points. If they take the lead, it’s four separate points. Thus, a team can get seven points if it goes from a one-run deficit to a one-run lead in the eighth. If both teams rally for the lead in the eighth, that’s a maximum of 14 points.

If a game goes into extra points, that’s three points. To that, add four points for every inning beyond the ninth. If a team falls behind in the top half of an extra inning and ties it in the bottom of the frame, that’s five point. If they take the lead, that’s an additional five points.

A series also gets points for its length. Here’s how it breaks down for a best-of-seven game series: 15 points for a full seven games, five points for six games, three points for five games, and no points for a sweep. For a best-of-five series, it’s 10 points for going the distance, two points for going four games, and none for a sweep.

For the handful of best-of-nines (1903, 1919-21 World Series), an eight-game series gets five points, and seven games is worth three points. That accounts for all of those series.

For great pitching, a shutout is worth two points, plus an additional point if it’s a complete-game shutout. A no-hitter is worth 10 points, plus an additional 10 if it’s a perfect game. Holding the opposing team to one hit is worth five points; a two-hitter is three points; one point for a three-hitter; and a half-point for a four-hitter.

An individual player getting three homers in a game nets seven points. If he gets just two homers, it’s two points.

Now for comebacks. There are three steps for it.

First step: The math here depends on progressive addition. Combing back from a one-run deficit is worth one point. Coming back from two runs is worth an additional two points, three in all (1+2). A three-run comeback is worth three more additional points, six in all (1+2+3), and so on. The biggest comeback in history is from an eight-run deficit, and that’s worth 36 points (1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8).

Second step: The above is nice, except there are two types of comebacks. Some just tie the score (erasing the old lead) and the other has the formerly trailing team take the lead. The latter is given extra points. Actually, it’s double. If a team trailing by one takes the lead, give them an extra point. If a team trailing by two runs takes the lead, give them an additional three points (1+2, again). And six additional points for taking the lead from a three-run deficit (1+2+3) and so on.

Third step: OK, the above steps are nice but lead to a huge problem—the points from comebacks overwhelm the overall scoring. Simply put, there are too damn many points floating around. Total comeback points based on this are 5,063, which would be a third of the overall score. Yeah, that’s too much. So the third step is simple—take all the above and divide by three. (This is why there are fractional scores, but oh well).

For example, look at the biggest comeback in postseason history. In the 1929 World Series, the A’s trailed the Cubs 8-0, but won 10-8. That’s 36 points for the comeback, and an additional 36 points for taking the lead. 72 points in all—until you divide by three. That leaves that comeback with 24 points.

Combing everything above, 262 postseason series combine for 11,728.8 points. Here’s a breakdown for them.

Comebacks are still the biggest item, at 1,687.7 points. Extra-inning points are next, at 1,637 points. Then comes walk-off wins (home runs and otherwise) at 1,500 points. Next, close games (one or two runs differences) are worth 1,495 points. Another 1,449 points are handed out based on length of the entire series. 1,220 points come from tying the score or taking the lead in the ninth. 861 points come from tying the score or taking the lead in the eighth. 755 points come from possible elimination games. 501 points come from shutouts. 380.5 points come from low-hit games. Finally, 283 points come from players with multi-home run performances.


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David P. Stokes
12 years ago

If the 1912 WS scores 99.7 points, how come it isn’t in the runner-up list?

Also, if game 5 of the ‘97 ALCS ending with Cleveland trailing by 2 and stranding runners at 2nd and 3rd, then how was game 6 “the second straight extr-inning contest”?

paul yamada
12 years ago

how did the 1982 WS miss this list? Without that WS, this list is vacant and meaningless!

Chris J.
12 years ago

David – you’re right it should be.  I just plain goofed in the list of 11-20.  It should be #16, drop everything else back one place.

Chris J.
12 years ago

Paul,

Why do think that one needs to be on the list? I’ve never heard anyone argue its one of the all-time great World Series.  It didn’t even come close, ranking exactly at #100 of the 262 completed postseason series.

There are 35 best-of-seven World Series that have gone seven games.  1982 ranks 26th among them.

bobm
12 years ago

Where did the 1986 WS rank among postseason series?

Chris J.
12 years ago

bobm –

The 1986 World Series comes in 47th place with 69.8 points.  Game Six was one for the ages, but aside from that there wasn’t too much.  Game Seven was alright, and Game One was a 1-0 game, but much of the series was rather banal. 

1986 had wonderful LCS and one of the greatest games in a World Series in history, but the World Series itself wasn’t one of the best. 

One thing I will note – and this is the biggest problem with my formula – it doesn’t differentiate at all between a great game late in a series and a great game in the beginning.  Game One wonderful?  Game Seven wonderful?  Scores the exact same.

aweb
12 years ago

I’d add a bonus for later series as well, much the same as you note for later games in a series.

Also, where is the current series so far? Two close games, a shutout, a 3-HR game – seems like it could “make a run” at the list if it goes 7.

Chris J.
12 years ago

aweb – I agree the biggest problem with my system is that a great Game One counts the same as a great Game Seven. 

That said, the only way to fix it would be for me to start from scratch.  I have one line per series in my excel file & I’d need to score all 1,200ish games one at a time to adjust for where in the Series a great game happens.  I have no interest at all in doing that.

As for the current one, I’m not sure how it ranks – I haven’t added it in so far.  Every game’s added in something.  Two one-run games – one with a ninth inning comeback.  A three home run game by Pujols.  A shutout in Game Four.  It’s doing good, but it wouldn’t make this list so far.

Jen
12 years ago

Would be interesting to rank the “POSTSEASON” itself by calculating an average score for all of the series in a particular year. Can you add this? it would be great.

FC
12 years ago

In a way the older LCS (1980 NLCS for example) and the LDS are handicapped by being limited to 5 games. Longer series can provide more drama, but somehow I feel some of these shorter series are being shortchanged through no fault of their own. Would it be worth it to somehow “Normalize” these series due to length? Or is more games ALWAYS ALWAYS better?

Chris Jaffe
12 years ago

Jen – I can do that.  In fact, I first came up with this for an article ranking overall postseasonal value from 1995-2011.  That’ll go up next week.

For now I’ll just note that the greatest postseason of the two-round era was 1986, at 304.8 points.  That easily smokes seocnd place 1972 (252.3 points).

Worst two-rounder: 1989: 46.5 points.  That also had the worst World Series of all-time (5.8 points).

Best one-rounder is 1924, as listed above.  Worst: tie between 1938 and 1951: 10.7 points for each.

Chris Jaffe
12 years ago

FC – I could try to normalize doing a points/game.  . .

Hmm. . let’s do that.

Top ten by a points/game system:
1) 1995 ALDS SEA-NYY. 26.5/game

2) 1999 NLCS ATL-NYM 24.6/game. (Yeah, there’s a reason why it wins overall in the article)

3) 1986 NLCS NYM-HOU 22/game.

4) 1980 NLCS PHI-HOU 21/game.  Nice to see that score so well.

5) 2003 ALDS BOX-OAK. 20.7/game.

6) 2005 World Series: CWS-HOU. 20.3/game.  Greatest sweep in history, and if you look it up this makes sense. Added bonus: a guy w/ zero regular season homers belts a walk-off homer. 

7) 1972 ALCS A’s-DET 19.8/game.  And that overlooks Reggie Jackson injuring his leg stealing home for the series winning game in Game Five; or Bert Campaneris tossing his bat at a pitcher earlier on.

8) 1991 World Series: MIN-ATL. 19.7/game.  Keep in mind, it should be a little trickier for a longer series to score so well in a per-game metric. 

9) 1975 World Series: CIN-BOX. 19.4/game.

10) 2001 WOrld Series: ARI-NYY. 19.2/game.

This all includes the points series get for length, which still gives an edge to longer series, but nothing huge.  And it’s still a lot of the same series here as in teh article.

Paul Yamada
12 years ago

I don;t understand what you base these rankings on. In the 1982 series, each team won one blow out and the remaining 5 games were very close with a lot of good and important fielding plays. Anybody there even old enough to have seen it?

Chris J.
12 years ago

Paul – I mention what I’m basing the rankings on in the references & resources section at the end. 

Why would you rank 1982 over 1972?  1972 had six one-run games and some great & important fielding plays? 

If you don’t agree with the list, that’s fine.  It’s meant as a starting point, not ending point.  It’s just weird to here it derided on behalf of a postseason series I’ve never heard anyone call one of the best ever.

Marge N. O'Error
12 years ago

Any system that doesn’t have the 1980 Phillies-Astros series up at or near the absolute apex is a system that needs fixing.  A 5-game series with 4 extra-inning games and 11 lead changes ain’t in no 13th place.

The points-per-game post above is a lot closer to the reality.  An even better formula would combine the two approaches. 

“Average points per game” can penalize a 7-game series that had a couple of nondescript games in it.  “Total accumulation of points” gives a free benefit to longer series over more thrilling 5-gamers. 

Combine it into “best 5 games of a 5, 6, or 7-game series” and the playing field would be more even.

frightwig
12 years ago

I see that you’ve noted the best World Series for each decade since 1900, except for the 1980s. So, I’m curious, what was the best World Series of the ‘80s by your formula?

James M.
12 years ago

Have you given any thought to a simpler rating system based on WPA?  For example, take the absolute value of the change in Win Probability at the end of each half inning and add them all up.  Games with multiple lead changes would automatically score high, especially if the changes occur late.  You might still have to supplement it for things like great pitching duels.  (A 1-0 game where the only run comes in the first inning wouldn’t rate very high.)  But I think it would handle most situations quite well all by itself.

Chris J.
12 years ago

frightwig—

D’OH!  Didn’t realize I missed that.  To make up, here’s the entire 1980s World Series rankings:

1985: 79.7 pts
1980: 73.3 pts
1988: 70.8 pts
1986: 69.8 pts
1982: 49.2 pts
1987: 32 pts
1981: 28.7 pts
1983: 28 pts
1984: 19.3 pts
1989 5.8 pts

James—WPA occurred to me, but tallying up all the WPA would take far too long.  The only way to do that is to go through the boxscore for each game, download info, tally it.  . screw it.

Terry
12 years ago

Agree on the high ranking of the 1991 Series. The 1987 Twins-Cardinals series wasn’t that dramatic, but it was close. The first “worst-to-first” matchups in history. The first time the winning team lost every away game (the Twins did this again in 1991).

1924 Series was the only one the Senators ever won. The 7th game featured not 1 but 2 bad hops in front of Giants 3B Freddie Lindstrom, the latter one resulting in the winning run scoring.

A great Hot Stove League topic.

tom
12 years ago

I feel like Game 6 probably just gave this World Series a huge boost.

Chris J.
12 years ago

tom – it’s right now in 14th place. 

Around the 7th inning, it was on pace to score as the 51st best World Series (not postseason series, just World Series) ever.  As of now, it’s placing fifth.  104.7 points.

(That’s if I’m doing the math right – using pen/paper & calculater.  Not gonna go into Excel until it’s all over).

PeteF3
12 years ago

I for one remember that ‘97 ALCS very well. Anderson’s “double” was a routine fly ball that Marquis Grissom lost in the twilight (and the Indians’ first run was also a ball lost in the sun or lights). The game ended with Omar Vizquel missing a suicide squeeze bunt and C Lenny Webster thinking that the ball was fouled off. The result was Webster casually walking after a ball on the ground as Grissom crossed home.

I bring the game up because the story for much of that game was Mike Mussina striking out 15 Indians, which leads me to believe that there should be points given for high strikeout totals by one pitcher—something like a point or two for getting at least 10 K’s.

And while there is no real way to measure this by B-R, my view is that plays at the plate are more exciting than home runs, both during games and ending games. I can think of the ‘06 NLDS (Giants/Marlins—the only series to end with an out at the plate), ‘95 NLDS (Mariners/Yankees), and ‘92 NLCS that ended that way as well as Game 6 of the ‘85 WS. Are there any other postseason series or notable games that ended as such?

And while it’s great to see some forgotten great series on this list, my view is that the later the postseason series, the more points its’ worth. All things being equal, a World Series that went exactly the way of the ‘99 NLCS should rank higher.

dave silverwood
12 years ago

I agree this is a fantastic article thank you—best single game game 6 1975 Cin and Bos won by the Bosox only to be beaten in game 7

tom
12 years ago

thanks for the update, Chris!

Ted
12 years ago

So here’s an obvious question. With the World Series now being over, do you have any plans to release the full updated list?

If you do anyway I can get a copy?

Chris J.
12 years ago

Ted – my article next week is ranking the postseasons from 1995-2011.  I’ll mention how the 2011 World Series ranks overall.

Weekly Journalist
12 years ago

Is anyone else confused by the absence of the 2003 ALCS?

Weekly Journalist
12 years ago

The 1996 NLCS should get an award for most dramatic reversal. Has any team ever delivered quite as big an !@#@ kicking after falling behind in a series 3-1? I remember Eckersley celebrating the Game 4 victory which put them up 3-1 a bit too much…and Ryan Klesko staring at him from the dugout with this really fierce, PO’ed expression. The Braves won the next 3 games 32-1.

jlc1865
12 years ago

Game 2 of the ‘86 NLCS was decided by six runs, not two or fewer. Also, series ended with two-on, not bases loaded.

Craig
9 years ago

Where is the 2003 ALCS? It should be in the Top 5 if it is not number 1.