My Five Favorite Great Teams

Baseball history is a source of constant speculation. A cherished pastime among fans is to speculate on greatness in baseball. Fans love to argue their case for favorite players, favorite teams, favorite franchises. This page provides some food for thought on baseball's greatest teams.

What makes a team "great"? Well, there are the obvious elements that everyone can agree on: great success on the field (think '98 Yankees), outstanding talent (think '76 Reds), colorful and memorable players and managers (think '34 Cardinals). But I'd like to suggest that greatness in baseball involves more than just success, more that just talent, more than flamboyance, though it's necessary to have all of these in some measure. To me the truly great teams either exemplify their era, putting their stamp on it, or make some sort of emotional connection to me as a fan (and preferably both of these). This last point, the emotional connection, is, I think, why there are such differing opinions among fans. What makes an emotional connection with one fan may have no impact on another. Often these connections have nothing whatever to do with the team itself, but depend on the individual's personal situation at the time. That's a big reason so many lifelong fans insist that the teams that were great during their youth were the "greatest of all time".

So with all those criteria in mind, I humbly submit this list of five teams I think were truly great. (Listed in chronological order)

The 1917 White Sox. OK, I have to admit that this team might not be on the list if it weren't for the 1919 Back Sox scandal. It was essentially the same team that eventually disgraced itself and the game, the only difference among the starters being at the bottom of the pitching rotation. (The manager was different, though.) But it's exactly that subsequent scandal that gives the memory of this team such an emotional edge. It truly was a fine team, winning 100 games and beating the Babe Ruth-led Red Sox by 10 games, then dispatching John McGraw's Giants in six games in the Series. It had talented players at almost every position, and plenty of color. It probably would have been strong enough in the early 20's to contest the Yankees for dominance in the American League and establish the White Sox as one of the elite franchises. They didn't do it, of course, and that melancholy sense of opportunity lost, of talent wasted makes this team stand out in my mind. I don't admire them for what they later did, but I know they were one outstanding ballclub. "Say it ain't so, Joe!"

The 1953 Brooklyn Dodgers. It would be pretty hard to make the case that this team was better on the field than the 1953 Yankees. After all, the Yanks beat them in the World Series four games to two, and also beat them in '47, '49, '52, and '56, while the Dodgers won only in '55. That's 5-1 Yankees during a decade (1947-1956) in which the rivalry between the two teams essentially defined the sport. So I'm not going to assert that these Dodgers were a better team than the Yankees who vanquished them. What I will say is that these Dodgers were much the more beloved group, a truly fine team in terms of talent that earned a special place in baseball lore. The team had great players: Jackie Robinson, Duke Snider, Carl Furillo, Gil Hodges, Roy Campanella, and great pitching: Carl Erskine, Preacher Row, Clem Labine, Johnny Podres. It had poignant human interest stories: Robinson, who had courageously broken the color barrier a few years earlier; Campanella (the '53 NL MVP), whose great career would be cut short by an off-season car accident a few years later. It would be immortalized in Roger Kahn's great book, The Boys of Summer. The Yankees may have prevailed on the field, but these Brooklyn Dodgers are the team that for most people exemplify baseball in the fifties.

The 1962 New York Yankees. The Yankees team from a year earlier (1961) gets most of the glory, and perhaps deservedly so, given the prodigious home run output by Maris and Mantle, but this was my favorite Yankees team. It was the first year I was old enough to really follow baseball, and I eagerly lapped up the box scores each day, keeping up with the exploits of Mantle & Company, even though I didn't live anywhere near New York. The team won 13 fewer games than it did in '61, and had fewer dominant individual performances. The great Mick had 137 fewer at bats, but still managed to slug 30 home runs and hit .321. Ralph Terry had his career year on the mound, winning 23 games and pitching 299 innings to eclipse, for one year, Hall-of-Famer Whitey Ford. The World Series was a memorable seven game struggle with the San Francisco Giants, probably the best team the Giants ever fielded in San Francisco. In a few short years, the wheels would come off the Yankee dynasty, marking the end of an era probably never to be repeated. But in 1962, the Bronx Bombers were at the height of their glory, and a lot of young Americans (myself included) cut their baseball teeth on cheering for the team.

The 1974 Oakland A's. This teams credentials as a great team are pretty solid. They won their third consecutive World Series, becoming the only non-Yankee team to accomplish the feat. The team was loaded with stars such as Reggie Jackson, Sal Bando, and Joe Rudi. It also had great pitching, with Catfish Hunter, Vida Blue, Ken Holtzman, Blue Moon Odom, and Rollie Fingers. Hunter led the league with 25 wins and a 2.49 ERA. Exemplify an era? Perhaps more than any team in baseball history. The 1972-74 A's were THE team of the turbulent early Seventies, with their colorful uniforms (at that time a true novelty), facial hair (again a novelty in major league baseball at the time), and brash manner. The swaggering A's dominated baseball for three years, and their top players (Jackson and Hunter) would go on to lead the restoration of Yankee greatness later in the decade and are now enshrined in the Hall of Fame. A remarkable and unforgettable team.

The 1984 Detroit Tigers. This team got off to one of the best starts ever, opening the season at 35-5. They led the league "from box to wire" and won a total of 104 games, winning the division by 15 games. The team lacked a Hall of Fame caliber leader, but was solid at just about every position. The best players were the great double play combination of Lou Whitaker (2B) and Alan Trammell (SS) and the fiery Kirk Gibson in right field. The pitching was solid as well, led by Jack Morris, Dan Petry and Willie Hernandez. The team was managed by the great Sparky Anderson. In a decade that failed to produce a dominant franchise, the '84 Tigers achieved the most impressive single season record of the decade.