Upstart Winners In 2023 MLB Playoffs Bring Up Past ‘What-If’ Scenarios

Sometimes, you can’t win ‘em all, not even when you win them the most.

MLB’s surprising post-season this year proves it.

Four teams with 99+ wins were immediately sent packing. The Atlanta Braves (104-58), Baltimore Orioles (101-61), Los Angeles Dodgers (100-62) and Tampa Bay Rays (99-63) went a combined 1-11. Lower-seeded clubs were 16-6 overall in the first two rounds.

That means long-time fans across America are wondering just what might have been had baseball’s current playoff format been used since the advent of the World Series in 1903. Could some long-forgotten also-rans risen to win it all?

Cleveland’s Long-Awaiting Fans

Cleveland claims the most close-but-no-cigar disappointments. Its’ championship drought is 75 years. Even before World Series Game 7 extea-inning losses in 2016 and 1997, the dry spell could have been shorter.

Cleveland won a one-game playoff tiebreaker in Boston over the Red Sox to get to the 1948 World Series, then beat the NL champion Boston Braves in six games. The nucleus of that club may have won more – if not for the mighty New York Yankees.

The Yankees went to the World Series in 14 of the next 16 seasons. During a six-year stretch in that reign (1951-56), Cleveland finished second five times. The only time the Yanks did not advance was when Cleveland won 111 games in 1954.

Cleveland’s what-might-have-been stretch:

· 1951: Yankees 98-56; Indians 93-61

· 1952: Yankees 95-59; Indians 93-61

· 1953: Yankees 99-52; Indians 92-62

· 1955: Yankees 96-58; Indians 93-61

· 1956: Yankees 97-57; Indians 88-66

Cleveland’s loaded roster featured future Hall of Famers in pitchers Bob Feller, Bob Lemon and Early Wynn and outfielders Larry Doby and Ralph Kiner (1955). The Tribe also had sluggers Al Rosen, Luke Easter, Vic Wertz (1954-56), Rocky Colavito (1956), other 20-game winners Mike Garcia and Herb Score (1955-56) along with star second baseman Bobby Avila, catcher Jim Hegan and relievers Don Mossi and Ray Narleski.

Such dominant pitching and power would have been quite a force in most any playoff series. It was the same formula that fueled the Yankees’ run.

New York had Hall of Famers Joe DiMaggio (1951 only), Johnny Mize (1951-53), Enos Slaughter (1954-55), Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford, Phil Rizzuto and other stars: Hank Bauer, Billy Martin, Vic Raschi, Eddie Lopat and ex-Indians Allie Reynolds and Gene Woodling.

The Yankees also had a knack for getting players to perform above and beyond. Don Larsen had a 10-33 record, including awful 3-21 in 1954 for Baltimore when New York traded for him. He went 45-24 in pinstripes with a legendary perfect game in the 1956 World Series. Then he went 26-34 for six other clubs through 1967.

Bob Turley, acquired with Larsen, went 82-53 in eight years in New York – and 20-33 everywhere else.

Yanks, Dodgers and Giants Fell Short, Too

New York had a similar stretch of frustration, placing second to the Philadelphia Athletics in 1929 and 1931, Washington Senators in 1933 and Detroit Tigers in 1934 and 1935. You figure Babe Ruth and/or Lou Gehrig could have gotten uber-hot at the plate and won a divisional playoff series or two.

In the NL, the Giants were second to the Dodgers five times between 1916 and 1966. The Dodgers placed just behind their rivals four times between 1924 and 1962 – including agonizing three-game tiebreaker losses in 1951 (Bobby Thomson’s walk-off homer) and 1962. Just think what possible NL division playoffs may have been like in those seasons.

100 Wins, Staying Home

Until MLB broke into divisions in 1969, six teams won 100 or more games and went home early.

The 1909 Chicago Cubs, coming off a World Series title, were the first to experience this utter disappointment. They had 104 wins, six behind Pittsburgh. The Pirates, led by 35-year-old shortstop Honus Wagner (.339, 100 RBI) and right-hander Howie Camnitz (25-6, 1.62 ERA) beat Detroit in the World Series. Babe Adams (12-3, 1.11 ERA during the season) went 3-0 with a 1.33 ERA, including an 8-0 win in Game 7.

Six years later, the Tigers were left out. They had one fewer win than the 101 by the Boston Red Sox, who beat the Philadelphia Phillies in a five-game World Series.

The Brooklyn Dodgers won 104 games in 1942, two fewer than NL champion St. Louis. The Cardinals then beat the Yankees in five games.

In 1954, the Yanks won 103, eight fewer than Cleveland. The Indians’ 111 wins did them no good in the World Series. They were swept by the Giants, who had 97 regular-season wins.

In 1961, Norm Cash (AL-leading .361, 41 homers, 132 RBI) and Rocky Colavito (.290, 45, 140) helped Detroit win 101. It wasn’t nearly enough. New York won 109, powered by Roger Maris (61 homers, 142 RBI) and Mickey Mantle (54 homers, 128 RBI, .317). The Yanks then clobbered Cincinnati in five games.

A year later, bitter rivals Los Angeles and San Francisco tied for the NL title at 101-61. The Dodgers went home with 102 wins while the Giants advanced with two victories in the three-game tiebreaker. The Giants lost a classic Game 7 to the Yankees, 1-0, when Willie McCovey’s sizzling two-out line drive with runners on second and third was snared by New York second baseman Bobby Richardson.

Recent Big Winners Denied

Two other teams won 100 games and missed the post-season. Baltimore won 100 in 1980 but the Yankees’ 103 won the AL East. New York was swept in three games by the Kansas City Royals in the AL Championship Series. In 1993, the Giants’ 103 wins were one fewer than NL West champ Atlanta. The Braves then lost the NLCS to the Phillies.

The biggest winners of all were upset victims, too. The 1906 Cubs (116-36) lost to the cross-town White Sox (93-58) in a six-game World Series. In 2001, the Seattle Mariners (116-46) edged Cleveland (91-71) in five games, then lost four of five to the Yankees (95-65) in the ALCS.

Pro Football Hall of Fame coach Vince Lombardi once notably said, “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.” He was almost right. It’s winning at the right time that counts.