Upsets are part of what makesbaseballinteresting . They cue us that any team – no matter where they ’re from and how little the payroll – can beat any other team on any given daylight . All sport have upsets , but baseball chronicle is filled with some of the most spectacular upsets of all .
Part of the reason for that is baseball is such a secret plan of numbers and statistics . We have precise metrics ( batting average , earned run fair , slugging portion , etc . ) that describe exactly why the good squad are just and the bad teams are high-risk . Those statistics can help make us think that the result of a biz is sometimes determined before it ’s even been act . Additionally , with 162 game , the regular season for Major League Baseball is so foresighted , and analysts and oddsmakers have a rich data set with which to determine the dearie and underdogs .
superior upsets is just as much a measure of our own expectations as it is carrying into action . As buff , sometimes we incline to look past the players on the field of battle , seeing only the telephone number – batten averages , runs scored , number of winnings , etc . But like every sportsman , you have to act and bring home the bacon the biz to hoist the trophy . As a general pattern , the higher the stakes , the more dramatic the disordered , so it should get as no surprisal that three of our top five upset took billet in the World Series , the annual serious - of - seven competition to decide Major League Baseball ’s good squad .
5: 2004 ALCS, Boston Red Sox over New York Yankees
Do the 2004 Red Soxreallydeserve a seat at this table ? Do we overestimate what they accomplished more because it ’s still recent history ? Yes , and possibly yes . The 2004 Red Sox managed to do something that no other squad had accomplished before or since : win a seven - game playoff serial publication after losing the first three games . Part of what made the Red Sox ’s triumph in the 2004 American League Champion Series is that they did it over the rival New York Yankees . Because they play in the rural area ’s biggest media marketplace , and because the squad has include so many legendary players and succeed so many championship over the years , the Yankees run to be a repeated front-runner , so it should come in as no surprise that they were losers in some ofbaseball ’s most memorable upsets .
At the end of the 2004 regular season , Boston wind up just three game behind the Yankees , and the two teams finished No . 1 and No . 2 in squad payroll , so by most accounts they were very equally match enter the playoffs [ source : ESPN ] . After winning the first three games of the series – two games at Yankee Stadium and one at Boston ’s Fenway Park – it seemed inevitable that the Yankees would prevail . After all , the mutant analysts continually reminded viewers , no team in history had ever managed to climb out from a three games - to - zero hole .
But then something peculiar occur . In fact , you could even nail the consequence when the momentum careen . In the ninth inning of plot 4 , Yankee backup Mariano Rivera walked Kevin Millar , which ultimately became the ligature run ( in the anatomy of pinch base runner Dave Roberts ) , extending the biz into surplus innings . In the bottom of the 12th inning , slugger David Ortiz hit a walk - off home foot race , winning the game for the Red Sox and keeping Boston ’s hopes active . go into that biz , the odds were 58 - to-1 against the Red Sox winning the series , yet they still managed to perpetrate it off [ beginning : Silver ] .
4: 2009 World Baseball Classic, The Netherlands over Dominican Republic
Although it fields the bestbaseballteam in Europe , the Netherlands is not typically bonk as a baseball game powerhouse . Like most of Europe , soccer(futbol ) is the most popular sport in the Netherlands , andice skatingis also very democratic – but not baseball game ? Not so much . Most baseball fan would probably be hard - urge on to name a undivided Dutch baseball player . That ’s why it came as such a surprisal when the Dutch home team shocked the Dominican Republic in the 2009 World Baseball Classic .
One plot can easy be written off as a fluke , but the matter that makes Holland ’s triumph over the Dominican Republic such a far-famed upset is that they draw out it off twice in a period of four Clarence Shepard Day Jr. . With a roster compose entirely of Major Leaguers , the Dominicans were considered tournament favorites in 2009 . After get ahead the first biz of the well - of - three serial 3 - 2 , the Dominicans ramp back and adopt the second plot handily , by a musical score of 9 - 0 . After such a awry victory , it was wide wear that the Dominican Republic would prevail in the third secret plan , but the Dutch team had other ideas [ beginning : Curry ] .
The third and final plot of the serial publication was a humble marking affair . After nine frame , the scotch was still tied at zero , but things last stupefy interesting in the 11th , when a Henry Fielding computer error by Dominican Republic first baseman Willy Aybar allowed a political campaign to tally , ending the game in striking way . Sure , the Dominicans can make the alibi that Alex Rodriguez – one of the most gifted and highest - paid athlete in the populace – was injured and ineffectual to fiddle , but the squad was still pile with Major League All Stars . The Dutch squad , meanwhile , featured just two Major Leaguers [ root : AP ] .
3: 1969 World Series, New York Mets over Baltimore Orioles
The 1969 Baltimore Orioles were a steamroller , but they could n’t top the Miracle Mets . The Orioles roster tout the good pitching rotation in the majors , and with sluggers like Boog Powell and Frank Robinson , its law-breaking was n’t anything to sneeze at either . The team cruised through the regular time of year , winning 109 games , which was the most any team had ever won up to that degree . The New York Mets , meanwhile , won an impressive 100 games in the ' 69 season , but they were still a youthful franchise ( the Mets were formed in 1962 ) . Most analysts did n’t expect them to be able to match the statistical vantage love by the Orioles .
When the serial began , it look like the oddsmakers would be demonstrate right . Baltimore pitcher Mike Cuellar smother the Mets batting order , pitching a complete - game triumph . But then the Mets ' starting gyration took over the series , allowing the Orioles to score just two runs over the next three games . The Mets then won the serial in dramatic fashion with a home discharge off of Don Clendenon ’s bat [ beginning : MLB.com ] .
One of the expectant intangibles in any team fun is coaching , because it ’s difficult as spectator pump to know how much of an impact a coach might have on the issue of a secret plan . But that was n’t the case in plot 5 of the 1969 World Series . In the 9th frame , Mets director Gil Hodges managed to convince the umpires that a lowpitchhad hit batter Cleon Jones in the foot by retrieving the ball and picture the skid glossiness on it . The very next batter , Clendenon , tally a two - ladder home run , winning the game and the series for the Mets [ source : SI.com ] .
2: 1988 World Series, Los Angeles Dodgers over Oakland A’s
Perhaps more than any other playoff serial publication in the New epoch , the 1988 World Series is remembered with one iconic picture : MVP Kirk Gibson hit the winning household foot race and limping around the base . Morrison had injured both of his legs during the National League Championship Series against the Mets , and he was n’t expect to play in the series . But in the bottom of the ninth inning , he tell manager Tommy Lasorda that he was available to lift hit , and a few minutes later he sent a 3 - 2 slider from Oakland A ’s close Dennis Eckersley over the right playing area bulwark [ source : Weinburg ] .
Gibson ’s walking - off base running game define the tone for one of the most tall upsets in baseball game chronicle . Going into the serial , the A ’s were a heavy favourite . Oakland ’s batting order featured the so - call " Bash Brothers , " Mark McGwire and José Canseco , who were two of the more feared homerun hitter in baseball game , and the squad ’s pitcherful were the finest in the American League . In comparison , the Dodgers look weak heading into the serial . In fact , on the air , NBC spreader Bob Costas even pass away as far as to call the Dodgers ' Game 4 batting order one of the weak in World Series history – and yet they still pulled off the win [ source : Wulf ] .
exceed though they did seem , the Dodgers delight in their underdog condition – Lasorda reportedly reminded his player of David and Goliath throughout the series . On the field , Gibson was n’t the only Dodger to ill-use up ; Cy Young - prize - winning pitcher Orel Hershiser part two of the five games , pitching complete games in both and allow a sum of just seven hits and two run .
1: 1960 World Series, Pirates over Yankees
No squad has dominated American sport quite like the Yankees . Throughout the squad ’s history , the Yankees have wind 27 World Series trophies – far more than any other . 1960 marked the beginning of a golden era of Yankeebaseball , as the team feature Mickey Mantle , Roger Maris and Yogi Berra , three of the secure actor in Major League Baseball history . By almost any measure , the Pittsburgh Pirates were an inferior team . Their pitching was inconsistent , and although the Pirates ' lineup let in batting claim winners Dick Groat and Roberto Clemente in their prime , they could n’t quite agree the Yankees ' firepower .
The box seat score at the end of the serial even seemed to evoke that the Yankees were the ranking squad – New York scored more full runs and racked up more total hits than Pittsburgh , and they still bring off to turn a loss . Those number were skew by the fact that the Yankees dominated the three game that they win , winning by a combined score of 38 - 3 , while keep the games they lost very close .
seemingly nobody told the Pirates that they did n’t stand a chance against the formidable Yankees . Despite getting blown out in the 2nd and third game of the serial publication , the Pirates hung around , getting strong pitching from Harvey Haddix and Vern Law in the next two games . Game 7 of the 1960 World Series is generally considered one of the most memorable games in baseball game history . The back - and - forth game went down to the wire , with each team take on the lead in the 8th and 9th innings . Then , in the bottom of the 9th , Pirates second baseman Bill Mazeroski strike the only Game 7 walk - off home running play in World Series history – one of the most unforgettable home run ever [ source : Schoenfield ] .
Lots More Information
Although I raise up in a part of the country that does n’t have its own Major League Baseball team , I ’ve always been a big baseball fan . I always tend to settle for the underdog , so this subject was a playfulness one for me . Of the five overthrow listed here , the Netherlands victory over the Dominican Republic excise me as the most surprising , and it pass away to show that any team , no matter who they are and how well known they are , can beat any other .
