The Brewers had just moved into Compadre Stadium when the blast occurred. They would play their spring games there until 1997.
The party is starting to thin out a bit at Major League Baseball’s “No Rings” club. Two years ago, at this time the Brewers were one of eight franchises that had never taken home a World Series victory, but by the end of this month that total could be down to six.
The Houston Astros have been one of baseball’s most dominant franchises in recent years, so it’s easy to forget that their World Series win in 2017 ended a 55-year drought. They won’t be the favorites this week, but if the Washington Nationals can pull off a World Series win in their first ever appearance it’ll also snap a 50-year streak.
Before 2019 the Nationals franchise’s best chance to win a World Series may have been derailed by factors outside their control: The Montreal Expos had baseball’s best record and were six games better than any other National League team at 74-40 on August 11, 1994, when a strike prematurely ended the season. Until this season they hadn’t advanced in the postseason since, in Montreal or Washington.
Beyond the Brewers and Nationals, here are the five other teams that have never hoisted a World Series trophy:
Seattle Mariners
Until this week Seattle and Washington were the only MLB franchises that had never even reached a World Series. The Mariners have just 14 winning seasons and four postseason berths in their 43-year franchise history, all of which came between 1995 and 2001.
The Mariners’ best shot at claiming a championship came in 2001, when a team led by American League MVP and Rookie of the Year Ichiro Suzuki set a major league record with 116 regular season wins. They took a best-of-five Division series over Cleveland but lost the American League Championship Series to the Yankees in five games and haven’t gone back to the postseason since, the longest active drought in major American sports.
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Texas Rangers
Another American League West team knows a thing or two about long postseason absences: Originally founded as the 1961 Washington Senators, the franchise now known as the Texas Rangers didn’t reach the playoffs for the first time until 1996, their 36th season. Like the 1994 Expos, they also were leading a division at the time of the strike, but their division was the worst in baseball history. They were the class of the 1994 AL West at 52-62.
The Rangers had won just one postseason game in their 49-year franchise history before the 2010 team edged out the Rays in five games and the Yankees in six to advance to their first of back-to-back World Series appearances. They lost to the Giants in five games in 2010 and the Cardinals in seven games in 2011 and have made three more postseason appearances since, but have not advanced.
San Diego Padres
Another West division team, however, can claim a level of misery the Mariners and Rangers cannot: Since their inception in 1969 the Padres have a .461 winning percentage, the worst of any active MLB franchise. The Brewers, who began play as the Seattle Pilots the same season, have logged 166 more wins.
The Padres had finished sixth in the six-team National League West in more than half of their 15 MLB seasons when they emerged with a 92-70 season and posted their division’s only winning record in 1984, then toppled the Cubs 3-2 in the NLCS. They lost to the Tigers in the World Series that season. They would later return with a 98-64 team in 1998 but got swept by the Yankees in four games.
Colorado Rockies
The two remaining teams on this list are much more recent MLB additions: The Rockies didn’t join MLB until 1993 and made a significantly more rapid climb to contention, qualifying for the postseason as a Wild Card in their third attempt in 1995. They, however, have never won a division championship: All five of their trips to the postseason have come as a Wild Card, including the 2018 season where they were swept in the National League Division Series by the Brewers.
Being the NL West’s second-best team didn’t slow the Rockies down in 2007, however: That team went 14-1 in their final 15 games to clinch a postseason berth, then swept the Phillies and Diamondbacks to advance to the World Series. Their momentum ran out against the Red Sox, though, as they were outscored 29-8 in a four-game sweep.
Tampa Bay Rays
The Rays were a 1998 addition to Major League Baseball but waited a while to make an impact: From 1998-2007 the franchise was known as the Devil Rays and lost at least 91 times each year, finishing fifth in the five-team American League East nine times in ten seasons.
They dropped the “Devil” from their name in 2008 and quickly changed their fortunes, going 97-65 and getting their first winning season, their first division title, their first postseason win and their first World Series appearance out of the way in the same season. They lost that series to the Phillies in five games, however, and haven’t won a postseason series since.
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