1961: Winners and Losers

For decades baseball was a pretty stagnant thing when it came to its teams. When the National League recognized the American League as an actual Major League in 1901 and then adopted the World Series in 1903, baseball was pretty much a stalwart. From 1903 until 1952 the original 16 teams played in the same cities. In the American League you had the Boston Red Sox, Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Indians, Detroit Tigers, New York Yankees (played as the Baltimore Orioles from 1901-1902), St. Lois Browns (Played as the Milwaukee Brewers in 1901), Philadelphia Athletics, and Washington Senators.

While in the National League you had the Boston Braves, Brooklyn Dodgers, Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds, New York Giants, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, and St. Louis Cardinals. Obviously, teams would move since then. In 1953 the Boston Braves moed to Milwaukee to become the Milwaukee Braves. In 1954 the Browns moved to Baltimore and became the Orioles. In 1955 the Philadelphia A’s moved to Kansas City, and in 1961 the original Washington Senators moved to Minnesota to become the Twins. 

Expansion would happen in 1961 as the American League would get a brand new Washington Senators team (these Senators would eventually moved to Texas in 1971 and become the Rangers), and the California Angels. Fans of these two new teams had to be excited, but their teams would be precedence on whom to model.

So, let us take a look back into the spring of 1961, and evaluate the original 16 MLB franchises and rank them. If you’re wondering if I arbitrarily chose 1961, I did not. I chose it because it would be a fair judgement. The 16 teams had been playing for 60 years in baseball.

  American League Rankings:

1. New York Yankees – 18 World Series titles, 29 AL Pennants 
2. Kansas City/Philadelphia A’s – 5 World Series / 8 AL Pennants 
3. Detroit Tigers – 2 World Series, 7 AL Pennants 
4. Cleveland Indians – 2 World Series, 3 AL Pennants 
5. Boston Red Sox – 5 World Series Titles, 11 AL Pennants 
6. Chicago White Sox – 2 World Series, 5 AL Pennants 
7. Minnesota Twins/Washington Senators – 1 World Series, 3 AL Pennants 
8. Baltimore Orioles/St. Louis Browns – 0 World Series, 1 AL Pennant 

So, looking at this the numbers may seem kind of messed up, let me explain. Despite having 5 World Series titles, the Red Sox are placed 6th due to that whole not winning anything since 1918, which was entering year 44 in 1962. Same with Chicago, they hadn't won a World Series since 1917. Luckily, the saving grace for the disgraced Sox teams was the fact that the Browns/Orioles have never won a World Series until this point, and the Senators hadn't won a World Series since 1924.

 National League Ranking:

1. St. Louis Cardinals – 6 World Series, 9 NL Pennants 
2. San Francisco/New York Giants – 5 World Series, 14 NL Pennants 
3. Pittsburgh Pirates – 3 World Series, 5 NL Pennants 
4. Los Angeles/Brooklyn Dodgers – 2 World Series, 10 NL Pennants 
5. Milwaukee/Boston Braves – 2 World Series, 4 NL Pennants 
6. Cincinnati Reds – 2 World Series, 3 NL Pennants 
7. Chicago Cubs – 2 World Series, 10 NL Pennants 
8. Philadelphia Phillies – 0 World Series, 2 NL Pennants. 

 As with the A’s and Red Sox, I gave the Reds the nod over the Cubs because of that whole 1908 thing (which was entering year 53). But I did put the Cubs over the Phillies because even though it had been 53 years, quantity over quality at that point.

 Looking back it all, its kind of crazy that after 59 years of baseball that two franchises never won it at that point. And that three teams would be in droughts. Meaning that from 1918 through 1960 only 11 teams were winning titles. Looking forward though, things would get better for some. The Red Sox, and White Sox would end their droughts in back to back seasons (2004, and 2005). The Phillies would finally win their first title in 1980. The title-less Orioles would have great success in the 1960s through the early 1980s winning 3 titles (1966, 1970, 1983) and 6 Pennants (1966, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1979, 1983) in a 17 season stretch. In 2010, the San Francisco Giants would win their first World Series since moving to the Bay Area.

For the downers: The Chicago Cubs are still waiting for another World Series title. The Indians have won two pennants since (1995, and 1997) but haven’t won a World Series since 1948. Its too hard to gauge teams now. With expansion happening in 1961, 1962, 1969, 1977, 1993, and 1998. Granted some of these teams have had good seasons in their infancy. Arizona would win a World Series in 2001 after being activated in 1998. And the Marlins would win a World Series in 1997 (and again in 2003) after being activated in 1993.