The first World Series between the American and National League champions was played in 1903 and the most recent in 2012. The era of World Series play thus covers a total of 110 baseball seasons from 1903 through 2012, although two seasons, 1904 and 1994, did not actually include a World Series.
One way to evaluate a franchise’s success over that long historical period would be to count up its total World Series championships — the Yankees with 27, the Cardinals with 11 and so on down the line. But the vividness of historical memory, like that of individual human memory, fades to some extent over time. It somehow doesn’t seem accurate to say that we think today, from our contemporary perspective, of the Cubs, Indians and Phillies franchises having had equal championship success because they have each won two World Series. That the Cubs’ championships are both over 100 years old while the Phillies’ World Series victories are more recent, colors our view of these team’s respective World Series success in a way that simply saying they’ve each won two world championships fails to reflect. Continue reading