MLB Playoffs 2015: Which Wild Card teams have won the World Series?

The Wild Card is often panned by Major League Baseball fans, but love it or hate it, there is no doubt it has had a huge impact on the MLB playoffs.

The Major League Baseball playoffs get underway on Tuesday night with the American League Wild Card game between the Houston Astros and the New York Yankees. That will subsequently be followed by the National League edition between the Chicago Cubs and the Pittsburgh Pirates. Two games, one and done, everything on the line.

That’s right, the playoffs are here and for four teams, it all comes down to a win or go home scenario.

Now while that would seem like a detriment to those teams involved, knowing that their World Series hopes may come down to just one game or the fact that they need to run out their best pitcher for that one game, it isn’t necessarily the end of the world. There has been enough history of Wild Card teams having success in the MLB postseason to give these four teams some hope that the Wild Card isn’t a death sentence in the playoffs.

Since its inception in 1994 (and its first usage in 1995), 21 teams have advanced as far as the league championship series. Of those 21 squads, 12 of them have reached the World Series and six of those teams took home the Commissioner’s Trophy.

So which six teams have been lucky enough to run the gauntlet from the Wild Card to the World Series title?

Next: 1997 - Florida Marlins