It's Still A Golden Age

There's just one week left in the 2014 baseball regular season, and it's been a season to forget for Red Sox fans, going from the top of the mountain into an extremely low valley.

But the Red Sox will still be called "Defending World Series Champions" until a new team is crowned at the end of October.

As we all know, the Sox have won three World Series championships over the past ten years. That is something to keep in mind through the end of this dark year. And especially remember those idiots in the media who kept reminding us before 2004 that the Sox had not won since 1918, going on about some "curse" they made up. The name currently escapes me.

That got me to thinking. How many teams' fans can say they have witnessed their club win the World Series three times? It's just handful, and I've done some digging on that subject.

Of the 30 MLB teams, no expansion club has won the Series three times. Just the Mets, Marlins and Blue Jays have won the Series twice, and the Royals, Angels and Diamondbacks have won it once. All the others are still seeking their first title.

That leaves the "original" 16 teams. All but three of them have won the World Series three times in their franchise histories: Phillies, Indians, and Cubs have each won it twice. That leaves 13 teams that have won it three times. Here are those teams, with the years they won their last three titles:

Red Sox: 2013-2007-2004
Yankees: 2009-2000-1999
Cardinals: 2011-2006-1982
Reds: 1990-1976-1975
A's: 1989-1974-1973
Orioles: 1983-1970-1966
Dodgers: 1988-1981-1965
Pirates: 1979-1971-1960
Giants: 2012-2010-1954
Tigers: 1984-1968-1945
Twins: 1991-1987-1924
Braves: 1995-1958-1914
White Sox: 2005-1917-1906

So as you can see by this list, only three teams have won it all three times in this last generation. And as you go beyond that, only those folks in middle age can say they've seen the Reds through the Pirates take three titles, and I'm safely betting that fans of the Twins (when they were the Senators in Washington), Braves (when they were in Boston and Milwaukee) and White Sox haven't seen it happen a trio of times, unless they've hit the century mark and beyond in age.

So savor this past decade, Red Sox fans. It is a golden age, and we may never see something like that happen again in our lifetimes.

But, you never know...