The World Series is the final set of games to declare the best baseball team in the United States at the end of the season. Baseball teams duke it out during the postseason, and each team works hard to make it to the final series. Even though both teams are fully deserving of their spots at the World Series, some franchises are so good that few can see them losing. Others race to a series lead and then blow it. These are the biggest World Series upsets of all time.
2006 Cardinals defeat the Tigers
The reason why we have so many games during the regular season is to weed out the strong side from the weak. The Cardinals were fortunate to make it to the postseason with a regular season record of 83-78. Although they had just made it, they sensed an opportunity and somehow made their way through the postseason to the World Series.
They were still not expected to win as the Tigers had won 95 regular season games and had just defeated the Yankees to make to the World Series. The teams traded the first two games in the series before the Cardinals put on the afterburners. Detroit could not catch St. Louis and the World Series ended in a shock 4-1 victory for the Cardinals.
1996 Yankees defeat the Braves
The Yankees were the last team staring at a 2-0 deficit in the World Series to come back and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. The Braves went into that World Series with a better regular season record than the Yankees, and the early games went to form. After dropping the first two games, at home, the Yankees rallied and went to Atlanta and got those games back immediately. Then the Yankees continued their march to the World Series by winning four straight, seeing out a 4-2 overall victory.
1969 Mets defeat the Orioles
In the 1969 regular season, the Baltimore Orioles recorded one of the best ratios ever, with a 109-53 record. They were one of the best teams ever thanks to the brilliance of Earl Weaver and Frank Robinson. No one thought they could be stopped and they breezed into the World Series. What they hadn’t accounted for was another team in great form. The Mets finished the regular season with 100 wins to their 62 defeats.
The Orioles took the first game of the series and looked to be well on their way to making history. It wasn’t over by a long shot, and the Mets gave the Orioles a taste of their own medicine by defeating them in the next game. The Mets bruised Orioles egos and seen out the series 4-1 in what was a shocking defeat for the Baltimore team who were such heavy favorites.
The two teams that make it to the World Series deserve their place, so it can’t be a huge shock when one side is declared the winner. These victories came from nowhere though, and they are the biggest World Series upsets of all time.
