World Series Champions Table
One hundred twenty World Series have been played since 1903, and the table's first structural fact is its two holes: 1904, when Giants manager John McGraw refused to let his club face the upstart American League's champion, and 1994, when the players' strike wiped out the postseason entirely. Everything else is here - from the first modern series (Boston Americans over Pittsburgh, best-of-nine) to the Dodgers' 2024 title.
The champion column is a franchise census: the Yankees' 27 titles are more than double the runner-up franchise (St. Louis, 11), their 1936-1953 stretch alone produced 12 in 18 seasons, and the next tier - Athletics and Red Sox at 9, the Giants and Dodgers at 8 each counting both cities - shows how steep the drop is. The table keeps era-honest names on purpose: the Brooklyn Robins who won nothing but appeared twice, the Boston Americans before the Red Sox name, and the Washington Senators and St. Louis Browns franchises that vanished in the 1950s move wave.
Dark-horse history lives in the runner-up column and the upset rows: the 1969 Miracle Mets over a 109-win Orioles club, the 1919 Black Sox series that fixed baseball's integrity machinery, Arizona's 2001 game-seven single off Mariano Rivera, and the Cubs' 2016 ten-inning Game 7 that ended a 108-year drought - the longest title gap any North American franchise has ever carried.
How to use
- Find any series by year: champion, loser and games count sit in one row, and the two dark years (1904, 1994) are rows of their own with the reason in the result column - a champion list that hides them inflates the count.
- Count franchise eras honestly: the Giants' 8 spans New York (5) and San Francisco (3); the Dodgers' 8 spans Brooklyn (1) and Los Angeles (7); the Athletics' 9 spans Philadelphia (5) and Oakland (3) plus Kansas City's interlude; the Braves' 4 spans Boston, Milwaukee and Atlanta.
- Read the result column for format history: best-of-nine series (1903, 1919-1921) show 5-win scores; a 4-0 with an asterisk in memory (1907, 1922) had a tied game; and no series since 1995 has needed more than seven games.
Frequently asked questions
Which team has won the most World Series?
The New York Yankees with 27 - more than double any other franchise. St. Louis is second with 11, then the Athletics and Red Sox with 9 each, and the Giants and Dodgers with 8 each (counted across city moves).
Why is there no World Series in 1904 and 1994?
In 1904, Giants manager John McGraw refused to play the American League champion, calling the junior circuit a minor league - the boycott killed the series until public demand revived it. In 1994, a players' strike canceled the postseason entirely, the only strike to cost a World Series.
Which team had the longest World Series drought?
The Chicago Cubs: 108 years between 1908 and 2016, the longest title drought in North American major-sport history (the White Sox at 88 years, 1917-2005, are second among the long-cured ones). Cleveland's active drought passed 75 years after its 1948 title.
Was the World Series always best-of-seven?
No. The 1903, 1919, 1920 and 1921 series were best-of-nine (hence the 5-win results in the table), and the 1903 format was agreed ad hoc between the leagues. The best-of-seven format became permanent in 1922.