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Bradford Doolittle, ESPN Staff Writer
For just the third time since 2012, the teams with each league’s best regular-season record met in the World Series. What if that happened every year?
For decades, that was how Major League Baseball worked. The best players on the best teams went from the top of the standings on the final day of the regular season directly to a yearly opportunity to write the October narrative in the World Series. With every addition to the postseason since it expanded to four teams in 1969, the odds of the best teams being the last two standing have gotten a little longer. The format has controlled the narrative.
The stories we remember about a season are largely driven by the structure that it employs, intentional choices made by the league’s designers about the schedule, the alignment and the playoff field. From 1903 through 1968, there was only one possible way to play in the Fall Classic. Thus, the narratives about a big chunk of baseball history are told through that prism. It’s a prism that hasn’t been applicable very often during the wild-card era.
Today, we’re playing a little what-if. What if the dynamic that was in place for the American League and National League all those years — no playoffs but simply pitting the two first-place teams against each other in the Fall Classic — never changed?
Yes, baseball would have still added teams over time and moved teams into different markets and such, but the World Series would remain the domain of the league’s two pennant winners. Everyone else goes home once the game meter hits 162.
The 2024 Los Angeles Dodgers–New York Yankees showdown reminded us just how big the matchups could feel, and the alternate realities that emerge in these scenarios over recent years are as rich in possibilities, both for the changed regular seasons as well as the World Series. What’s lost is everything that happened between the end of the regular season and the start of the Fall Classic — no wild-card games, no division series, no championship series. That’s a lot of dramatic moments lost to oblivion, which we must bear in mind.
Obviously, the stories we’d remember about each season would be very different, but would they be better or worse? Keeping our focus on the current four-round playoff era, let’s rewrite recent baseball history.
Note: Numbers in parentheses represent league rank by won-lost record, not playoff seed. Where needed, ties were broken based on head-to-head results.
Actual World Series: (3) San Francisco Giants over (7) Detroit Tigers
No. 1 vs. No. 1 matchup: New York Yankees vs. Washington Nationals
What’s gained: The gains in the regular season would have been considerable. In our alternate AL, the Yankees won the pennant by one game over the Athletics and two over the Orioles and Rangers. The Yankees were four games back of Texas on Labor Day, so it would have been a torrid stretch run that put the Bombers over the top. Going into the last week of the season, six teams would have been mathematically alive, and one of them would have been the real-life pennant winner, Detroit.
The final days of the season would have been epic. The Yankees beat Boston three times in a row to hold on to the flag over the A’s, who won their last six games only to fall short. In doing so, the Athletics nudged aside the Rangers, whom they swept to end the campaign. In the Yankees’ clincher in Game 162, Robinson Cano went 4-for-4 with two homers and six RBIs in a memorable 14-2 drubbing of the Red Sox. By the middle innings, it would have been clear: The Yankees win the pennant!
The NL stretch run would have been almost as dramatic. The Nats edge the Reds by a single game, with the Braves and real-life champion Giants finishing four back. Everyone else would have been eliminated entering the final week. That pennant race would have also been decided on the final day.
The Series would have been a juicy matchup featuring current and soon-to-be superstars. That Yankees team had Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Andruw Jones and CC Sabathia, among others, though Mariano Rivera was injured. The Nationals, seeking a franchise-first championship, had two emergent young stars: budding ace Stephen Strasburg and a 19-year-old rookie named Bryce Harper who was playing in his first World Series.
What’s lost: The Giants-Tigers World Series pitted the two eventual MVPs — Buster Posey and Miguel Cabrera — against each other. Bruce Bochy, without the expanded playoffs, would not only lose this title in a classic-format universe — he’d lose all four of the championships he has won.
In the regular season, we would have lost the AL Central race in which Detroit edged the White Sox by three games and led them by just one game with a week to go. We would have also lost a pair of semi-close races for the second wild-card slot in each league.
2013: Red Sox-Cardinals remains
Actual World Series: (1) Boston Red Sox over (1) St. Louis Cardinals
No. 1 vs. No. 1 matchup: Same
What’s gained: Before 2024, this was the last full season that yielded a one-versus-one World Series matchup. So our alternate reality season ends up in the same place. The biggest changes in narrative would have been the September chases in both leagues.
In the AL, only three teams are alive entering the final week, and the focus is on Boston’s one-game lead over Oakland. The Red Sox hang on despite losing two one-run games at Baltimore to finish the season. The Athletics are eliminated in Game 161, losing 7-5 in Seattle thanks to a two-homer, five-RBI outburst from Brad Miller.
Over in the NL, the final week is operatic. Five teams are alive with seven days to go, and they are all within 2½ games of each other — the Braves, Cardinals, Dodgers, Reds and Pirates. The Cardinals were five back of Atlanta on Labor Day but have been coming on strong down the stretch. With no margin for error, the Redbirds win their last six and 10 of their last 12. The clincher comes on the final day with a 4-0 whitewashing of the Cubs.
What’s lost: Cleveland, Texas and Tampa Bay all finished within a game of each other for the two AL wild-card slots. The Rangers and Rays tied for the last spot and in the classic format we would have lost the Rays’ 5-2 victory in a tiebreaker, a victory that featured David Price‘s complete-game win. Also, in the playoffs, we lose Detroit’s five-game win over Oakland in the ALDS. The Tigers won Game 5 behind a gem from Justin Verlander, who went eight two-hit innings with 10 strikeouts.
In the NL races, nothing too dramatic would have gone by the wayside. However, in the classic format, the Pirates would still be stuck in a long postseason drought. When the Pirates earned a wild-card slot in 2013, as they went on to do in 2014 and 2015 as well, they made the playoffs for the first time since 1992. In the classic format, the drought would stretch back to 1991, but the upside is that Pittsburgh owned the NL’s best record in both 1990 and 1991, and thus would have seen a pair of Barry Bonds-led pennant winners in those campaigns.
2014: Mike Trout(!) vs. Bryce Harper
Actual World Series: (5) San Francisco Giants over (4) Kansas City Royals
No. 1 vs. No. 1 matchup: Los Angeles Angels vs. Washington Nationals
What’s gained: Both leagues would have featured uncrowded races in the season’s final days. In the AL, the Angels held a 2½-game edge on the Orioles with a week to go. In the NL, Washington led the Dodgers by the same margin, though the Cardinals were still alive at 4½ games back. The Angels and Nationals both ended up winning by two games, and neither pennant was still up for grabs on the final day.
With pennant race drama somewhat muted in 2014, the focus would have been on the amazing individual matchup in the World Series, which would be remembered as the Mike Trout-Bryce Harper World Series. Trout, 22, won his first MVP that season, though his 2012 and 2013 seasons were even better. In real life, 2014 was his only playoff appearance; but in the classic format, that would have come in the Fall Classic. That particular albatross is one he would have shed long ago.
Harper would be making his second World Series appearance, though 2014 wasn’t his best season. Early injuries and struggles left him with just three homers through the end of July. However, Harper caught fire after that, hitting 10 homers over the last two months, and would have been firing on all cylinders by the time the clash with Trout came to pass. This year’s Aaron Judge–Shohei Ohtani hype would have included something like “the best World Series superstar matchup since Mike Trout and Bryce Harper a decade ago.”
What’s lost: The Royals and Tigers would have been out of the running, their AL Central battle lost. Kansas City, which won the pennant as a wild card, would still be working on a long playoff drought. Its amazing comeback in the epic wild-card game against Oakland would never have happened. And not only would Bochy lose another title, as mentioned, but the Giants would not be a three-time champion in the 2010s. Indeed, they might still be looking for their first San Francisco title. But maybe not — stay tuned.
2015: An in-state Fall Classic
Actual World Series: (1) Kansas City Royals over (5) New York Mets
No. 1 vs. No. 1 matchup: Royals vs. St. Louis Cardinals
What’s gained: For 2015, we have to begin with that World Series matchup. Thirty years after the first I-70 Series, the Cardinals get a chance for revenge. St. Louis skipper Mike Matheny would have been managing in the Series against the team he eventually managed. But you have to wonder: Matheny only managed St. Louis for two more full seasons after 2015. If he had led the Cardinals to another World Series (in addition to 2013), would it have been longer?
In the AL pennant race, four teams were alive entering the last week, with the Royals and Blue Jays tied for the lead. They were still tied entering the final weekend, on which Toronto lost two straight at Tampa Bay. The Royals grabbed the lead on the second-to-last day, beating Minnesota behind a gem from Yordano Ventura. Meanwhile, the Jays lose a gut puncher on a two-out, two-run game-winning single by the Rays’ Tim Beckham against Toronto closer Roberto Osuna. Kansas City wraps it on the final day, beating Minnesota again to finish the season with a five-game winning streak.
The 100-win Cardinals cruise to the NL pennant despite being shut out in their last three games during a sweep in Atlanta. St. Louis had the NL wrapped up before that series began but, obviously, the Cardinals would not have entered the Fall Classic matchup against the red-hot Royals on a good note. The Cubs and Pirates faded, but they were both within striking distance of the Cardinals going into the last week.
What’s lost: The rise of the Cubs would have been a hot story in any context. But in real life, Chicago earned a wild-card spot and advanced to the NLCS, losing to another hot story in the pitching-rich Mets. The Matt Harvey phenomenon? Much less muted on a fifth-place team out of the running by the middle of September.
There would have been a lot of good playoff baseball lost. The Mets beating the Dodgers in a five-game NLDS, with Jacob deGrom shining in the clincher. The Royals’ come-from-behind ALDS win over Houston, gone. Kansas City’s dramatic six-game ALCS win over Toronto, poof.
We also would have lost a seminal what-if: Had the Mets not made the playoffs, then Harvey would not have been on the mound in the ninth inning of the last game of the World Series. Would his career have turned out differently had that never happened?
2016: The Cubs vs. … ?
Actual World Series: (1) Chicago Cubs over (2) Cleveland
No. 1 vs. No. 1 matchup: Cubs vs. TBD (Cleveland or Texas Rangers)
What’s gained: A crowded AL pennant race would have gone to overtime. As of Labor Day, six teams would have been in the running, all within 6½ games. By the time we hit the final week, that number was down to four, with the Red Sox and Rangers tied for the lead, 1½ games ahead of Cleveland, and the Blue Jays clinging to hope, down 5½ games.
With the pennant race reaching its crescendo, Cleveland ran into bad weather in Detroit. Their game on Thursday, Sept. 29, is washed out and can’t be made up until the day after the regular season. This happened in real life. Texas finished a half-game ahead of Cleveland for the AL’s top seed, but since the Rangers owned the rulebook tiebreaker, and tiebreaker games aren’t played just to determine a seed, the makeup game was never played.
However, in the classic format, it would have been. Had Cleveland won that makeup game in Detroit, it would then have played the Rangers in a tiebreaker for the AL pennant. Thus we might have gotten our Cubs-Indians World Series after all — and arguably in a much more dramatic fashion. Meanwhile, the Red Sox missed a chance to really muddle the end-of-season waters by losing two straight one-run games at Fenway Park against Toronto to finish the campaign.
As for those Cubs, they pretty much made a shambles of the NL, so there was zero pennant-race drama down the stretch.
What’s lost: Once again, dramatic wild-card races drew our eyeballs as the season wound down. As with all seasons like this, where the wild-card races are the closest ones, our attention drifts to the middle of the standings. The Mets and Giants edged St. Louis by one game for two NL slots, while Baltimore and Toronto held off Detroit and Seattle in the AL. There weren’t any division races with even a semblance of drama in 2016, so all the down-the-stretch attention was fixed on the wild cards. This would not have been the case in the classic format.
As for the playoffs, we had just one series go the distance. That was in the NLDS, where the Dodgers eked past the Nationals, winning Game 5 by a 4-3 score. That was the game where Kenley Jansen threw 2⅓ scoreless relief frames and Clayton Kershaw got the last two outs for what remains his only career save.
The real drama was the 2016 World Series — which we might well have gotten in any format.
2017: Sign-stealing Astros lose their crown
Actual World Series: (2) Houston Astros over (1) Los Angeles Dodgers
No. 1 vs. No. 1 matchup: Cleveland vs. Dodgers
What’s gained: Who knows what would have become of the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal, but we can at least say this: After losing an epic pennant race against Cleveland, Houston would not have had the chance to win a tainted championship. Instead, Cleveland would have gotten perhaps its second straight shot at ending its title drought.
The AL race would have largely been a two-team battle between Cleveland and Houston, but it would have been an all-timer. On Labor Day, the unofficial start of the stretch run, Houston led by three games, but Cleveland was in the midst of its 20-game winning streak, ending up going an incredible 33-4 to finish the season.
Still, Houston was also hot, as the Astros went 14-3 to end the season. With both teams losing their second-to-last games, it would have come down to the final day, with Cleveland holding a one-game edge. Cleveland beat Chicago 3-1 to clinch, riding a solid start from Josh Tomlin and 3⅔ scoreless innings from the backbone of that team, its bullpen. Final standings: Cleveland 102-60, Houston 101-61.
The NL was down to a two-team race between the Dodgers and Nationals by Labor Day, but L.A. pulled away from there, cruising to a pennant and into a rematch of the 1920 World Series.
What’s lost: Frankly, not much. The Red Sox and Yankees went to the wire in the AL East, though both made the postseason. Neither would have joined the Cleveland-Houston derby in a classic format. The race for the NL’s second-wild card came down to the finish, with the Rockies edging the Brewers by a game.
The playoffs in 2017 featured a lot of close, tense matchups, so losing those would be tough. The Yankees overcame a 2-0 deficit to beat Cleveland in five, then dropped a classic seven-game series to Houston in the ALCS. The Cubs beat the Nationals in a five-game NLDS series, winning the finale 9-8.
Mostly though, we never would have gotten that Astros-Dodgers World Series. Whether or not you consider that a loss depends on how jaded you feel about it, given the Houston scandal. But at the time, that seven-game classic was one of the better Fall Classics in quite awhile.
2018: An MVP matchup on the biggest stage
Actual World Series: (1) Boston Red Sox over (3) Los Angeles Dodgers
No. 1 vs. No. 1 matchup: Red Sox vs. Milwaukee Brewers
What’s gained: Well, first of all you have the Brewers’ first NL pennant, their only other World Series appearance coming when they were still in the AL. With a pennant comes the chance at a championship, so perhaps the Brewers would no longer be one of the five franchises without one.
More certain is that the Brewers would have earned that shot by winning a tremendous NL pennant race in which they overcame their bitter rivals to the south, the Cubs. Chicago and Milwaukee played in a tiebreaker for the NL Central title in 2018, but in the classic format, that would have been a winner-take-all game for a berth in the World Series.
The race would have been about more than those two teams. Going into the last week, six NL clubs would have been alive, with the Cubs leading the pack, 2½ games up on Milwaukee. Chicago didn’t collapse but instead the Brewers caught fire, winning their last seven to get into that tiebreaker which, of course, they won.
The Red Sox ran away with the AL pennant but perhaps the lack of drama on that side would have been outweighed by a World Series matchup that featured the two eventual MVPs in Mookie Betts and Christian Yelich.
What’s lost: To say the Red Sox ran away with the AL in the classic format is true — going into the last week, the Astros — at 6½ games back — were the only other contender still mathematically alive. But the Yankees and Astros joined the Red Sox as 100-game winners in 2018 and neither would have made the playoffs in a one-seed-only scenario. Still, Boston lost just two games in rolling over both teams on the way to the Series.
In the NL, we would have lost a second tiebreaker game, as the Dodgers had to beat the Rockies to determine the NL West champion. We also would have lost the outstanding, seven-game NLCS in which the Dodgers beat Milwaukee.
2019: Now we get our Astros-Dodgers showdown
Actual World Series: (4) Washington Nationals over (1) Houston Astros
No. 1 vs. No. 1 matchup: Astros vs. Los Angeles Dodgers
What’s gained: While the classic format would have prevented the 2017 Astros-Dodgers pairing, we would have gotten it here, and it would have been a clash between teams that combined to win 213 games. Again, we can’t know how this matchup might have been colored by the Houston scandal, which didn’t break until after this World Series. But at least the matchup itself would have been untainted.
The Dodgers and Braves are the only serious NL contenders, and even that race would die out by the last week as L.A. pulled away. The real story would have been on the AL side.
The AL featured three 100-win teams in 2019, the Astros, Yankees and Twins. The pennant race boiled down to those three by Labor Day, when the Yankees and Astros were tied, with Minnesota four games back. By the final week, the Twins were barely alive at six games behind, but the Yankees were just a half-game back of Houston, both teams with 102 wins.
That set up an intense conclusion but, alas, the Yankees faded in the final days, losing four of five at Tampa Bay and Texas. Houston won six of its last seven contests, and 12 of its last 14, to seize the crown — its first during the period covered in our revised history.
What’s lost: The Cardinals finished two games up on Milwaukee to win the AL Central, though the Brewers still got in as a wild card. Neither would have been in the running in a revised format. Milwaukee had to fend off the Mets, Diamondbacks and Cubs for that second wild-card slot.
The eventual champion Nationals, the top NL wild card, would never have sniffed the postseason in the classic format. Whether or not this means the Expos/Nationals franchise was still seeking its first title depends on how our alternate-history 2012 and 2014 World Series came out, as Washington would have represented the NL in both of them.
2020: Dodgers-Rays remains
Actual World Series: (1) Los Angeles Dodgers over (1) Tampa Bay Rays
No. 1 vs. No. 1 matchup: Same
Look, we all know there is a lot we’d change about 2020 if we could, in baseball and beyond. Insofar that the 2020 MLB season can be redeemed, it is arguably redeemed because despite a 16-team bracket, the best teams actually ended up in the World Series, and the clear best team that year — the Dodgers — won it. Beyond that, there’s not much to be gleaned about that season.
2021: Do Giants finally win their first title in San Francisco?
Actual World Series: (5) Atlanta Braves over (3) Houston Astros
No. 1 vs. No. 1 matchup: Tampa Bay Rays vs. San Francisco Giants
What’s gained: Here’s a Giants pennant gained via the classic format but, alas, it’s too late for Bochy, as this was Gabe Kapler’s club. The Rays win their second straight AL pennant, giving them another shot at exiting the zero-titles club.
Starting with the AL, the Rays would have had this well in hand by the middle of September. The Astros, Yankees, Red Sox and White Sox — the other teams that made the real-life AL playoffs in 2021 — all were within hailing distance of the Rays, but it wasn’t that close. Tampa Bay ended up five games better than Houston atop the AL.
In the actual NL that season, the Giants and Dodgers staged a memorable battle to win the NL West, with San Francisco (107) winning by a single game over L.A., making the Dodgers one of the best-ever second-place teams. That still would have been the case in the classic format but the stakes would have been higher — first place, or nothing. The teams’ last head-to-head game that year was Sept. 5, which would have seemed like a tremendous lost opportunity at the time. At 4½ games back on Labor Day, the Brewers had hopes of joining this sprint but soon faded.
This might have been a World Series in pursuit of firsts — the Rays trying to secure the franchise’s first title; the Giants perhaps trying to win their first championship since moving to San Francisco. Don’t forget — their 2010, 2012 and 2014 titles never happened.
However, the Giants also finished with the NL’s best record in 2000, so that would have been another shot at winning it. It also would have been Bonds’ third Fall Classic, after his two alternate-history pennants in Pittsburgh.
What’s lost: Braves history would look a lot different in the classic format. They’d lose this title, which means Freddie Freeman would have just won his first ring — with the Dodgers. However, get this: Atlanta finished with the NL’s best record nine times in 12 years between 1992 and 2003. They actually won four pennants (and one title) during that span, but it could have been so much more.
The only playoff series that went five games was the Dodgers’ NLDS win over the Giants. But if we’d have had that long, head-to-head scramble between them for the NL pennant, we wouldn’t have needed that.
2022: Astros-Dodgers II
Actual World Series: (1) Houston Astros over (6) Philadelphia Phillies
No. 1 vs. No. 1 matchup: Astros vs. Los Angeles Dodgers
What’s gained: A long time to analyze the pending Astros-Dodgers rematch from alternate 2019. The teams won 217 games between them this time, and both enjoyed sizable leads in their respective leagues over the final weeks of the campaign.
What’s lost: The first six-seed in a World Series, for one. The first five-versus-six seed LCS as well — the Phillies and the Padres. The Mets and Braves tied for the NL East title with 101 wins — no tiebreaker games in the new format, a shame — and rather than moving into the bracket, they both would have finished 10 games back of the Dodgers. The down-the-stretch fixation on the race for the NL’s third wild card — Philly beat the Brewers by a single game — would have been lost.
2023: Ronald Acuna Jr. starts 40/70 club, meets O’s in October
Actual World Series: (4) Texas Rangers over (6) Arizona Diamondbacks
No. 1 vs. No. 1 matchup: Baltimore Orioles vs. Atlanta Braves
What’s gained: A great World Series pairing. The Braves, riding Ronald Acuna Jr.’s historic season, and the title-starved Orioles, with young stars Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson, among others. Both teams won over 100 games during the regular season.
Both leagues would have featured two-team races. The Orioles and Rays duke it out into the final week, though Baltimore wraps things up with a couple of days to go. The Braves and Dodgers go toe-to-toe in the NL, but Atlanta is able to keep L.A. at arm’s length down the stretch.
What’s lost: The Rangers’ first title would never have happened, as neither World Series entrant would have sniffed the postseason. The three-team race in the AL West, the one in which Seattle was left without a playoff slot, would have not happened. The seven-game ALCS in which both the Rangers and Astros went perfect on the road would not be a thing. Arizona’s seven-game NLCS win over the Phillies would also be gone, so we’d have lost two winner-take-all pennant clinchers.
2024: The East Coast-West Coast showdown we just saw
Actual World Series: (1) Los Angeles Dodgers over (1) New York Yankees
No. 1 vs. No. 1 matchup: Same
What’s gained: Sometimes, even the format can’t get in the way. Although, this is a season in which the alternate-reality regular season is greatly enhanced by the classic format.
The only down-the stretch dramas we had involved teams that won 80-something games. The Royals, Tigers and Mariners comprised one of those races, all for two of the three AL wild-card slots. The Mariners also had a shot at the AL West crown, won by the 88-win Astros. The NL was the same story, with the Diamondbacks left out of an NL wild-card spot in the three-team derby with the Mets and Braves.
In the classic format, there would have been six AL teams within 5½ games of the lead on Labor Day, while the NL would have had five teams within six. It would have made for an awfully fun September. By the last week, we would have been down to two in the AL (Yankees by 2½ over the Guardians) and four in the NL (all within four games).
Entering the final weekend, we would have had the Yankees with a one-game edge over Cleveland, and the Dodgers one game up on the Phillies.
What’s lost: A very good postseason, including the Mets’ run, the Royals and Tigers advancing to the ALDS, the great Dodgers-Padres NLDS — all of it, vanished. And it does feel like a loss, but how much of that is because, as fun as the journey might have been, we still ended up with the matchup so many wanted in the first place?
We also wouldn’t have gotten that epic day-after-the-season, on which the Mets and Braves played their memorable makeup doubleheader, giving Francisco Lindor the platform for his clinching homer that is one of the signature moments of his career.
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