The Texas Rangers, last year’s champions, are out of the playoffs.
This means Major League Baseball will have a new champion for the 24th year in a row. Since the Yankees’ three-peat from 1998 to 2000, no team has won back-to-back World Series titles. This is the longest streak without a repeat champion in MLB history and also in any major North American professional sport like the NFL, NBA, or NHL. Baseball truly stands out when it comes to parity.
From 1978 to 1992, baseball’s longest previous streak without a repeat champion was only 14 years. Now let’s look at some teams that have won since then:
Teams That Won Since Last Repeat:
– The Giants grabbed three titles (2010, 2012, and 2014) after moving to San Francisco.
– The Red Sox broke their long drought since 1918 by winning four times (2004, 2007, 2013, and 2018).
– First-time winners include the Diamondbacks (2001), Angels (2002), Astros (2017), Nationals (2019), and Rangers (2023). The Astros also won again in 2022.
– The Cubs ended their curse by winning in 2016 for the first time since 1908.
– The White Sox ended their wait since 1917 with a win in 2005.
– The Marlins picked up their second title in just their eleventh season (2003).
– Cardinals added two more trophies to make it an NL-high eleven titles (2006 and 2011).
– Yankees secured another championship in ’09 bringing their total to an MLB-high of twenty-seven.
– Phillies celebrated their first victory since ’80 by winning in ’08.
– Royals returned to glory with a title win in ’15 after waiting since ’85.
– Dodgers finally clinched another title after thirty-two years in ’20.
– Braves captured their first crown since ’95 by winning it all in ’21.
Fans might think it’s exciting that so many different teams have had a chance to win over these years.
So much excitement! And now we get ready for another team to add its name to this list soon.
What do you think about this streak? Do you like seeing new champions each year?
