Ranking every World Series winners in history
By Staff
42. 1977 New York Yankees
100-62, AL East Champions, Won World Series 4-2 Over Los Angeles
After the New York Yankees won the World Series for the first time in 1923, the club won 20 World Championships over the next 40 years, and never suffered through a title drought longer than four seasons. However, once the expansion era began in Major League Baseball, it got tougher to win the pennant, and therefore the World Series, and the Yankees didn’t even make it to the Fall Classic between 1965-75.
Swept by the Big Red Machine in the 1976 Series, New York made it back again the following year after winning the AL East with a 100-62 record, which was 2.5 games better than both the Baltimore Orioles and Boston Red Sox, and then by beating the Kansas City Royals 3-2 in the ALCS – which included a dramatic come-from-behind victory in the ninth inning of the deciding Game 5.
The Yankees weren’t a dominant team, and didn’t lead the American League in a single major hitting or pitching statistical category, but had plenty of star power in Reggie Jackson (.286/.375/.550, 32 HR, 110 RBI), Craig Nettles (37 HR, 107 RBI), Thurman Munson (.308/.351/.462, 18 HR, 100 RBI), Ron Guidry (16-7, 2.82), Catfish Hunter (9-9, 4.71) and Cy Young Award-winning reliever Sparky Lyle (13-5, 2.17, 26 saves).
Jackson won World Series honors with an unbelievable five home runs among his nine hits with a .450/.542/1.250 slash in the six-game World Series victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers – the first for the franchise since 1962.