The Last 20 Years of World Series

So with the Giants winning the World Series, I got to thinking about how the 2000's compared to the 90's. In looking at this, I'm counting the decades the way only anal time-geeks do, meaning the 90's run from 1991 to 2000 and the name-less decade runs from 2001 to 2010.

The 90's, for one thing, only had 9 World Series. The 1994 fall classic was of course canceled by the strike. Of those, 7 of 9 were won by the American League, and just 5 teams divvied up those championships: Twins, Blue Jays, Braves, Yankees, and Marlins. The Blue Jays and the Yankees both repeated. The Yankees actually won three in a row, and 4 of 5. All but 3 of them went to a Game 6 or later. There were 2 sweeps and one that ended 4-1. Two Wild Card teams made the World Series with the 1997 Marlins winning it all.

The 2000's started with the Yankees just 3 outs away from winning their 4th consecutive Championship. Than all sorts of hell broke loose. Mariano Rivera blew a save and the Diamonbacks won in just their 4th year of existence. The AL and NL split the championships 5-5, in spite of the fact that the AL had home-field advantage for all but 2 of them (2001 and 2010).

Seven Wild Card teams would reach the series, at least one every year from 2002 to 2007, including the all Wild Card World Series of 2002. Three of them would win. Three of the five longest droughts would end: White Sox (88 years), Red Sox (86 years), and Giants (56 years). Only 4 Series would go to a Game 6 or later.

The 10 championships were divvied up by 9 teams. No team won back-to-back. The only team to win more than one? The Boston Red Sox (2004 and 2007). Who would have guessed that in 2001 when the decade began?

What surprises will the next decade hold? Well if the players and owners don't ruin things by adding more teams to the postseason, hopefully lots of great things.