Top Ten World Series of the Past 30 Years

As the Yankees and the Phillies are squaring off in the 2009 World Series I thought we could take a look back at the best World Series of the last 30 years. I picked the time span of 30 years for they are World Series that I have actually seen, so I don't need to rely on others to tell me how good or bad things were. I could have gone a little further back but 30 seemed like a good round number. So away we go.

10. 1985 Kansas City Royals 4, St. Louis Cardinals 3: A good seven game series that had a anti-climatic seventh game, an 11-0 win by the Royals. The Cardinals had their spirits crushed in game six on a bad call by Don Denkinger at first base, after which the Cardinals imploded and lost game six 2-1. Bret Saberhagen was the star of the series pitching two complete games for the Royals in games three and seven, only allowing one run over the 18 innings.

9. 1980 Philadelphia Phillies 4, Kansas City Royals 2: Only a six game series but the biggest margin of victory was three runs in the series. The turning point of the series was when the Phillies rallied in the ninth inning of game five with two runs. Steve Carlton would shut down the Royals in game six and the Phillies would take home their first World Series title.

8. 1982 St. Louis Cardinals 4, Milwaukee Brewers 3: This was a match up of opposite offensive philosophies, the speed and contact hitting of the Cardinals versus the raw power of the Brewers. The Brewers started the series off well with a 10-0 win, but never really showed the power they had all season long, only hitting five home runs during the series, one more than the Cardinals. The Cardinals took game seven by a score of 6-3 and were led by the pitching of Joaquin Andujar.

7. 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates 4, Baltimore Orioles 3: Baltimore at one point held a 3-1 lead in the series, but the We are Family Pirates would not be stopped as they won in seven. Only three of the games were true close games, but they included game seven that was 2-1 until the ninth inning. Pirates first baseman Willie Stargell hit a big two run home run in the sixth inning of game seven and had seven runs batted in the series to lead the Bucs. If this was an ugly uniform contest the Pirates would be number one.

6. 1995 Atlanta Braves 4, Cleveland Indians 2: This six game series five games decided by only one run. Pitching ruled the series including only five hits between the two teams in game one. The Braves clinched the series with a game six win in which Tom Glavine and Mark Wohlers teamed up on a one hitter, while the Braves offense managed just one run. This would be the Braves only World Series title in a run of 14 straight playoff appearances.

5. 1997 Florida Marlins 4, Cleveland Indians 3: Although some of the contests in this series weren't close you have to give extra credit for a game seven that goes into extra innings. The Marlins Livan Hernandez managed to win two games even though he had an earned run average of 5.27. The Indians Chad Ogea was a surprise star for the Indians winning two games himself. There was plenty of offense as well as Sandy Alomar Jr. drove in ten runs for Cleveland and Moises Alou drove in nine for Florida. The Marlins would win their first World Series title when they took game seven 3-2 in 11 innings, with an RBI single by Edgar Renteria.

4. 1986 New York Mets 4, Boston Red Sox 3: A classic series with the Mets coming back to win the last two games and the series. Game six is the game most people remember as the Red Sox led the Mets by two runs going into the bottom of the tenth inning. Then everything went all topsy turvy as Calvin Schiraldi, Bob Stanley, and Bill Buckner teamed up to give the game to the Mets. The Red Sox did lead game seven until the sixth inning, but once the Mets took the lead the Red Sox were done and Wade Boggs would be crying in the dugout while the Mets celebrated on the field at Shea Stadium.

3. 1993 Toronto Blue Jays 4, Philadelphia Phillies 2: A crazy kind of series that featured a 15-14 game three win by the Blue Jays, followed up by a 2-0 Phillies win in a pitcher's duel in game five. Then to cap the whole series off Joe Carter hits a three run home run off reliever Mitch Williams in game six to clinch the title for the Blue Jays. The series also featured four home runs by the Phillies center fielder Lenny Dykstra, when he only hit 19 all season long.

2. 1991 Minnesota Twins 4, Atlanta Braves 3: Five of the seven games in this series were decided by just one run with three of the games going into extra innings. All seven games were won by the home team, so there was a happy crowd in the ballpark each night. Game seven was a match up between John Smoltz and Jack Morris with Morris outlasting Smoltz and going ten innings to earn a 1-0 victory. Gene Larkin drove in the winning run for the Twins even though it was only his fourth at bat in the series.

1. 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks 4, New York Yankees 3: Another series where the home team won every game, but this series went beyond baseball. After the attacks of September 11 the city of New York was the focus of the nation and the Yankees were part of the healing process for many New Yorkers. The Yankees offered an escape from reality if only in three hour increments. The drama of the series reached its peak with come from behind home runs in games four and five in Yankee Stadium by Tino Martinez and Scott Brosius respectively. Unfortunately the story did not have a fairy tale ending when Luis Gonzalez looped a single off of Mariano Rivera in game seven to give the Diamondbacks the series.

So there it is my top ten World Series of the last thirty years, if you disagree let me know your thoughts in the comments area.

All statistics courtesy of www.baseball-almanac.com