The seven-game World Series holds the promise of high drama. That promise is fulfilled if the Series stretches to a seventh game and that game goes down to the wire. Courtesy of
Baseball-Reference.com, here is what has happened in the deciding game of the Series that have been played to date:
1909 - Pittsburgh (NL) 8 - Detroit (AL) 0
1912 - Boston (AL) 3 - New York (NL) 2 (10 innings)
1925 - Pittsburgh (NL) 9 - Washington (AL) 7
1926 - St. Louis (NL) 3 - New York (AL) 2
1931 - St. Louis (NL) 4 - Philadelphia (AL) 2
1934 - St. Louis (NL) 11 - Detroit (AL) 0
1940 - Cincinnati (NL) 2 - Detroit (AL) 1
1945 - Detroit (AL) 9 - Chicago (NL) 3
1947 - New York (AL) 5 - Brooklyn (NL) 2
1955 - Brooklyn (NL) 2 - New York (AL) 0
1956 - New York (AL) 9 - Brooklyn (NL) 0
1957 - Milwaukee (NL) 5 - New York (AL) 0
1958 - New York (AL) 6 - Milwaukee (NL) 2
1960 - Pittsburgh (NL) 10 New York (AL) 9 (decided by Bill Mazeroski's home run in the bottom of the 9th)
1965 - Los Angeles (NL) 2 - Minnesota (AL) 0
1967 - St. Louis (NL) 7 - Boston (AL) 2
1968 - Detroit (AL) 4 - St. Louis (NL) 1
1971 - Pittsburgh (NL) 2 - Baltimore (AL) 1
1972 - Oakland (AL) 3 - Cincinnati (NL) 2
1973 - Oakland (AL) 5 - New York (NL) 2
1975 - Cincinnati (AL) 4 - Boston (AL) 3
1979 - Pittsburgh (NL) 4 - Baltimore (AL) 1
1982 - St. Louis (NL) 6 - Milwaukee (AL) 3
1985 - Kansas City (AL) 11 - St. Louis (NL) 0
1986 - New York (NL) 8 - Boston (AL) 5
1987 - Minnesota (AL) 4 - St. Louis (NL) 2
1991 - Minnesota (AL) 1 - Atlanta (NL) 0 (10 innings)
1997 - Florida (NL) 3 - Cleveland (AL) 2 (11 innings)
2001 - Arizona (NL) 3 - New York (AL) 2 (decided in the bottom of the 9th)
2002 - Anaheim (AL) 4 - San Francisco (NL) 1
Summary statistics:
30 seven-game Series (29 percent of 103 series played, including 4 in a best-of-nine format, none of which lasted 9 games)
15 Series decided by 1 or 2 runs
10 of those 15 Series decided by 1 run (5 times in extra innings or the winning team's last at-bat)
4 consecutive seven-game Series 1955-58, all involving the New York Yankees (21 percent of the Yankees' Series -- 8 of 39 -- went to seven games)
Does the World Series deliver high drama? Seldom. In fact, only about 10 percent of the time. The other 90 percent of the time it's merely an excuse to fill seats and sell advertising.
