I’m not really sure when major league baseball clubs started handing out World Series rings to the members of their winning teams, but I do recall reading somewhere that the 1927 New York Yankee players received special wrist watches for their slightly other-planet accomplishments. By the 1940’s, however, the practice of awarding especially designed World Series rings had taken over, and probably had been in place for several years.
Circumstances recently put me in contact with images of two different rings from two very different eras. The pictures speak fairly well for themselves about one measure of how much things have changed over the time.
The above shot of a 1944 St. Louis Browns World Series ring came to me from Wayne Williams of Colorado, one of my friends in the St. Louis Browns Historical Society. Wayne got it from a guy who somehow acquired it somewhere in the wide, wide world of memorabilia collecting. It supposedly belonged originally to the team doctor. The gold ring bears the Browns’ crest and it contains no rare jewels on its scaled-to-everyday-wear sized body. The Browns lost the ’44 World Seris to their hometown rival Cardinals, four games to two. The ring was properly inscribed for what it was, an “American League Championship” ring. Since the Browns only won this single time over the entire course of their 52-year history (1902-53), the 1944 ring is especially meaningful as the triumph of patience over self pity.
2008 Philadelphia Phillies World Series Ring
WOW! Look at that recent Phillies World Series ring on my finger in the above photo! My hands aren’t that big, but the size of this thing made me feel like a Hobbit or something. The ring belongs to Gene Diaz, Director of Media Relations for the Houston Astros. Gene was a long-time employee of the Phillies organization before accepting the upgrade spot he now holds down for the Astros. Gene brought the ring with him to a presentation he made at our September 2009 SABR meeting downtown at Molly’s Pub. In contrast to the “plain and simple” Browns ring, the Phillies ring brings new color and definition to the phrase “big and fancy.” It’s golden oversized body feels more like a bowling ball that you soon wish to put down before it takes your whole arm away, but it glitters while you wait for relief. I think it contains 103 diamonds, one for each of however many games the Phillies actually won in 2008. -What do they do to top this thing if the Phillies win it all again this year?
What if these two clubs actually squared off against each other at Time Warp Field to play a World Series against each other? We’d have that delicious match up that nobody ever dreams of, the 1944 Browns versus the 2008 Phillies! – Oh well! Based upon ring design differentials, and what we can know of speculatively about a pairing of these two clubs from a talent standpoint, I would venture this prediction about the outcome of a best four of seven Series:
Blingville 4 – Bluesville 0.
Tags: Baseball, History
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