The New York Yankees of Major League Baseball have won the most professional titles in history. The long-time American League powerhouse has won 27 World Series titles as of 2014. The Boston Red Sox are a close second with 26 World Series wins.
The St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs are next with eight each. The Houston Astros, Los Angeles Dodgers, and Florida Marlins have seven each. And the Minnesota Twins, Pittsburgh Pirates, San Diego Padres, and Oakland A's have six titles each.
The Yankees' success can be attributed to their ability to find talented players who will help them win games. From the beginning of the baseball season until around June, it is difficult to pick against them. They are always among the top teams in the league standings and have appeared in at least one World Series game every year since 2001 except for 2003 when they were banned by the MLB for using performance-enhancing drugs.
Other teams that have won multiple World Series include the Brooklyn Dodgers (who had also been part of the Yankees' organization), Chicago White Stockings, Cincinnati Reds, and Philadelphia Athletics. None of these teams currently plays in the MLB today.
The eight clubs with at least eight World Series titles are shown below.
Yankees of New York (52 playoff appearances) The Yankees are often regarded as the most successful club in MLB history. The figures don't lie. They've won 27 World Series and 40 AL pennants in 52 playoff appearances.
| New York Yankees | |
|---|---|
| Major league titles | |
| World Series titles (27) | 1923 1927 1928 1932 1936 1937 1938 1939 1941 1943 1947 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1956 1958 1961 1962 1977 1978 1996 1998 1999 2000 2009 |
The Toronto Blue Jays are the only team from outside the United States to have appeared in and won the World Series in 1992 and 1993. The Houston Astros are the only team to have represented both the National League (2005) and the American League (2017 and 2019), winning the World Series in 2017. The Los Angeles Dodgers are the current World Series winners.
Before becoming a professional franchise, Brooklyn previously won championships in 1858, 1864, and 1866. Before there was a World Series, Brooklyn won the American Association in 1889 and the National League in 1890, 1899, and 1900.
The 1956 series was the last time two teams from New York competed in the finals until 2000. After the 1957 season, the Dodgers relocated to Los Angeles, and the Giants, the third New York franchise, relocated to San Francisco; the Mets would not exist until 1962. The Dodgers were finally in Los Angeles, and the Yankees were not even in the World Series.
The Yankees became the first club since the 1972–1974 Oakland Athletics to win three consecutive titles. Since the Yankees, no club in MLB has won three consecutive games. At the time, they were the only professional club to win three games in a row since the Chicago Bulls in 1996–1998. The Cubs and White Sox have both done it twice.
In addition to being the first since the A's to accomplish the feat, the Yankees also are the only team to win three straight post-season contests. They defeated the Red Sox in six games to claim their third championship in four years. It was the first World Series victory for New York since 1962.
The Yankees started off strong by winning their first nine games of the season. They ended up with a record of 63-19 which was the best start in franchise history. The previous record was 62-19 set in 1931 when the Yankees first came into the league. That year, they went on to win the first Yankee Stadium championship in just their second season.
After losing their first game against the Boston Red Sox, the Yankees went on to win three in a row becoming the first team to do so since the 1972-74 Oakland Athletics. They finished the series 3-0 and took over first place from the Red Sox. In their next game, the Yankees lost to the Minnesota Twins but still led the division by one game over the Twins and Red Sox.
The Giants won three World Series wins in 2010, 2012, and 2014, for a total of eight World Series triumphs, including five as the New York Giants. They are the most recent team to win three World Series titles.
The Giants' overall record is 814-824 (.500).
They have been playing in San Francisco since 1883 when they moved from New York City after their original ballpark, Broadway Ballpark, was destroyed by a fire. Before then, they played in New York City at Elysian Fields until that stadium was also burned down. The team has never left California for its games ever since.
Giants' owner John Henry owns the Boston Red Sox and serves as chairman of the board for that team's parent company, Fenway Sports Group. Former Yankee manager George Steinbrenner bought the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1992 and took them to the World Series each year from 1995 to 2009 before selling his share of the team to Jeffery Loria who moved the team to Miami Beach where it now plays as the Marlins.
In addition to having the most World Series victories, the Giants have also seen more overtime games (20) than any other team. They've played two more games than the second place Chicago Cubs (18).
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