Back in the fall of 1903, the Boston American League club was about to become the first club of the Modern Era to have won a World Series.
The World Series Ring Count
If the 1903-2017 World Series Championship Race is a game to be played over the course of nine centuries, then maybe it’s still a tad early to call the ultimate winner in the morning side of our second inning of play. Otherwise, and, in spite of the fact that 2009 marks the only World Series they’ve won in the 21st century through 2017, the New York Yankees still look like Secretariat when you name all the eligible clubs down on the track and start counting their wins as though they were furlongs at Belmont.
Our motive for doing this column was simple: We wanted to see the Astros listed in print at The Pecan Park Eagle among the “Haves” and, just as much, to show them now removed forever from their old place among the “Have Nots” – or “Never Haves” – whichever you prefer.
Here are the Standings to Date, 1903 to 2017
Most World Series Wins to Least
| WINS | TEAM |
| 27 | NEW YORK YANKEES |
| 11 | ST. LOUIS CARDINALS |
| 8 | BOSTON RED SOX |
| 5 | NEW YORK GIANTS |
| 5 | PHILADELPHIA ATHLETICS |
| 5 | PITTSBURGH PIRATES |
| 5 | LOS ANGELES DODGERS |
| 5 | CINCINNATI REDS |
| 4 | DETROIT TIGERS |
| 4 | OAKLAND ATHLETICS |
| 3 | BALTIMORE ORIOLES |
| 3 | CHICAGO CUBS |
| 3 | CHICAGO WHITE SOX |
| 3 | SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS |
| 2 | CLEVELAND INDIANS |
| 2 | FLORIDA MARLINS |
| 2 | KANSAS CITY ROYALS |
| 2 | MINNESOTA TWINS |
| 2 | NEW YORK METS |
| 2 | PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES |
| 2 | TORONTO BLUE JAYS |
| 1 | ANAHEIM ANGELS |
| 1 | ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS |
| 1 | ATLANTA BRAVES |
| 1 | BOSTON BRAVES |
| 1 | BROOKLYN DODGERS |
| 1 | HOUSTON ASTROS |
| 1 | MILWAUKEE BRAVES |
| 1 | WASHINGTON SENATORS |
| 0 | COLORADO ROCKIES |
| 0 | MILWAUKEE BREWERS/SEATTLE PILOTS |
| 0 | SAN DIEGO PADRES |
| 0 | SEATTLE MARINERS |
| 0 | ST. LOUIS BROWNS |
| 0 | TAMPA BAY RAYS |
| 0 | TEXAS RANGERS/WASHINGTON SENATORS |
| 0 | WASHINGTON NATIONALS/MONTREAL EXPOS |
The spiritual awakening and the revitalization of ancient hope among Houston Astros fans has continued to rise rise and soar since all our history changed that magical night of November 1st in LA. It just goes to confirm something that all baseball fans know from early on. The old song is wrong: “One is not the loneliest number that we’ll ever do.” One is getting to first base. It is hope eternal in the flesh. Before you ever figure out how good you are at getting to first base, we each have to prove to ourselves that we can get to first base at all. Then go from there to loftier hopes – that still will come only one time at bat in a row, taking us all the way back to where baseball careers either live or die: See the ball. Hit the ball.
The 2017 Astros saw and hit the ball good enough to put the club into the “1 Win” club. And we all now have an actual experience right to feel much less lonely than we were prior to the 2017 season.
Keep the grin going, everybody. This “see the ball, hit the ball” mentality applies to anything that we feel passionately about in our lives, if we just open our minds to see the connection.
One more applicable note: This time a year ago, the Astros had never done what the Yankees franchise has often done. Now they have. And the Astros now know from experience that they are capable of doing it again. One, indeed, is not a lonely number. Not a lonely number at all.
FOOTNOTE: We added the St. Louis Browns to the “0” winner category, even though the franchise later won 3 times as the Baltimore Orioles. The O’s later success was no consolation to the 51 years of suffering the Brownies reigned down upon their small fan base in St. Louis from 1902 to 1953. We could have added the Kansas City Athletics to the “dilly dilly” group, but their short stay in agony at KC was brief enough to bear only this mention as a footnote.
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Bill McCurdy
Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher
The Pecan Park Eagle
The Pecan Park Eagle 
January 4, 2018 at 3:13 pm |
You’re right on target about the effect of this one championship. When Chris Taylor blasted Dallas Keuchel’s first pitch of WS Game 1 for a homer, I thought, “Typical Astros.” When Clayton Kershaw dominated that same game, I thought, “There is nothing new under the sun.” In spite of those great victories in Games 2 & 5, in the 9th inning of Game 7 I kept waiting for a two-out Dodgers rally that would make the Astros’ disappointments of playoffs past seem like a picnic in the park. Now, however, I’ve realized that I’ll never think that way again – hope will spring eternal. Even though I’m well aware that the Astros won’t win ’em all, I’ll believe they have a chance until the final out. And, when they don’t win, I’ll always get to remember that time when they did – I don’t think anyone can look at the Astros in the same way as before WS Game 7 again. It’s the power of one.
January 4, 2018 at 4:13 pm |
Awesome. Our first ring, and we only need 26 more until we catch the Yankees, assuming that the Yankees don’t add to their total in the interim. And we can tie them by my 96th birthday if we win the World Series consecutively every year between now and then.
Frivolity aside, this one means an irreplaceable memory is locked into position. It brings a smile to many faces with a moment’s reflection. Fight the good fight versus a worthy adversary, go home and kick back, regroup, and start preparing for the next chapter.
January 5, 2018 at 1:25 am |
Players on the losing team also get rings, and in the early WS no one got rings. So your count is off.
January 5, 2018 at 5:41 am |
Cliff,
I’m guessing that 97% of our readers understand that we are talking about World Series”titles” here and not the literal “rings” that the 3% may have heard and thought this column was about. Please forgive me if I don’t rush to do a ring count on how many of these MLB clubs issued jewelry to both winners and losers differentially and variably over the years.