Craig Tomarkin / History & Historic Teams

Greatest Teams Ever: Part I  Part II Part III Part IV Greatest Non-Champion Teams Ever

THE GREATEST NON-CHAMPION TEAMS EVER

The search for diamonds in the rough is worthwhile. There have been some mighty teams that have come up just short. The summers of 1948 and 1949 immediately come to mind. The Ted Williams led Boston Red Sox finished one game behind the Cleveland Indians in 1948 and one game behind the New York Yankees in 1949, but were the best team of the three over the two-year span.

I've been following the Best Second-Place Team Ever posts in SABR-L, which have been fueling my desire to learn more about these forgotten teams.

Mark Wernick liked the 1993 SF Giants who won 103 games but managed to finish second to the mighty Braves who won 104. This happened in the final season before the leagues were reconfigured to form three divisions with a wild card, which would have given them a postseason birth. According to this analysis, they were 26th among non-champs, so there must have been some great hidden gems.

Four years later, the Florida Marlins took advantage of the wild card system and won the World Series. They were ranked number 255 among non-champions. In 2000, the New York Mets took advantage of the wild card system and won the NL pennant only to lose to the New York Yankees in the first subway series in nearly 50 years. They were ranked number 260 among non-champions.

Allan Wood liked the 1915 Detroit Tigers (100-54) who finished second to the Red Sox (101-50). (Tally one for the Sox). They were the first American League team to win 100 games and not win the pennant. According to this analysis they were the 12th best non-champion team. What is most interesting about this ranking is that the team finishing in third place that season, the Chicago White Sox with a 93-61 record snuck in as the eleventh best non-champion team. This was due to their overwhelming scoring advantage. The 1915 White Sox scored 41% more runs than they allowed.

With a 98-56 record and an average scoring advantage of 43%, the 1908 NY Giants were the best third place finisher ever and seven best among non-champion teams. In fact, had they been included in the grand list, which includes champions, they would have made the Greatest 64 Ever list as number 53.

My personal favorite would have been the aging 1897 or 1898 Baltimore Orioles who were just past their three-year dynasty. In my opinion, during the team's peak, they were the most talent-loaded team ever. In 1894, they had six Hall of Famers: Dan Brouthers, "Hustling Hughie" Jennings, "Little John" McGraw, "Wee Willie" Keeler, Joe Kelley and "Uncle Robbie" Robinson. In 1898, all of these HOFers, except for Dan Brouthers, remained.

The 1897 Baltimore Orioles were the second best non-champion team ever with a .692 winning percentage and scoring advantage of 43%. They would have been ranked number 25 had they been included in the grand list, which includes champions.

The best non-champion team ever was the 1909 Chicago Cubs. They were led by the Hall of Fame DP combo Tinker to Evers to Chance and had three of the top five earned run average leaders, Mordecai "Three-Finger" Brown, Orval Overall and Rube Kroh. They went 104-49 with a whopping scoring advantage of 63%. That scoring dominance broke its own team record of 51% and no other non-champion team has reached 50%.

How in the world did this team not win the NL pennant? Oh yeah, the fifth best team ever (ranked just behind the 1927 Yankees), Honus Wagner led Pirates, were 110-42 with a 56% scoring advantage. I guess there was tough competition that year.

On May 2 of that season, Honus Wagner stole his way around the bases in the first inning of a game against the Cubs. Double plays can't help you there.

Before the Cubbies came along, the non-champion scoring advantage record was held by the 1897 Baltimore Orioles with a .498%.

I did not include teams before 1893 in this analysis, because as I explained in the series of Greatest Teams Ever analyses, it was the first year of modern rules with the pitchers mound at 60 feet 6 inches. Also, the top one or two teams in those years typically dominated the league, which skews the results.

To rank the best non-champions, I used the same trusty formula as in Part III of the Greatest Teams Ever analysis. The formula from Part IV included postseason results, so it would not be appropriate here, even though wild card teams from recent seasons had postseason records. The formula was applied to all regular season non-champions from 1893 through 2001:

Regular season winning pct * (runs scored/runs allowed)

I sorted them in descending order, giving us a rank ordered list of teams by best winning record weighted by indexed margin of victory. The top sixteen teams were already reported in the Greatest Teams Ever - Part IV analysis. So, I expanded the list to 64 teams and included their won-lost records and order of finish during the regular season. Some third placed teams and one forth place team climbed high enough to make the list.

The "Best Rank" column indicates where they would conservatively fit in the overall list, which includes champions. Champions, whose ranks would have benefited by including their postseason records, were given their higher ranking for the purposes of the "Best Rank."

Enjoy!

Rank/Best TM LG YR W-L Score, Pos

1 / 6 CHI N 1909 104-49 1.107, 2nd

2 / 25 BAL N 1897 90-40 0.991, 2nd

3 / 28 BRO N 1942 104-50 0.983, 2nd

4 / 34 BAL N 1898 96-53 0.965, 2nd

5 / 39 NY A 1954 103-51 0.956, 2nd

6 / 51 PHI A 1909 95-58 0.921, 2nd

7 / 53 NY N 1908 98-56 0.91, 3rd

8 / 54 CHI N 1905 92-61 0.907, 3rd

9 / 80 PHI A 1928 98-55 0.863, 2nd

10 / 81 OAK A 2001 102-60 0.842, 2nd

11 / 82 NY A 1931 94-59 0.863, 2nd

12 / 93 CHI A 1915 93-61 0.851, 3rd

13 / 96 DET A 1915 100-54 0.846, 2nd

14 / 102 BOS A 1949 96-58 0.837, 2nd

15 / 105 CLE N 1895 84-46 0.836, 2nd

16 / 109 CHI A 1954 94-60 0.833, 3rd

17 / 111 BOS N 1899 95-57 0.831, 2nd

18 / 115 STL N 1935 96-58 0.827, 2nd

19 / 116 NY A 1948 94-60 0.826, 3rd

20 / 119 NY N 1894 88-44 0.823, 2nd

21 / 120 NY A 1920 95-59 0.822, 3rd

22 / 121 CHI A 1905 92-60 0.821, 2nd

23 / 123 PIT N 1912 93-58 0.819, 2nd

24 / 125 NY N 1897 83-48 0.816, 3rd

25 / 126 STL A 1922 93-61 0.814, 2nd

26 / 133 SF N 1993 103-59 0.808, 2nd

27 / 134 CLE N 1896 80-48 0.759, 2nd

28 / 136 PIT N 1906 93-60 0.806, 3rd

29 / 140 CLE A 1906 89-64 0.8, 3rd

30 / 142 STL N 1945 95-59 0.8, 2nd

31 / 143 NY N 1919 87-53 0.8, 2nd

32 / 147 PHI A 1932 94-60 0.796, 2nd

33 / 148 PIT N 1893 81-48 0.795, 2nd

34 / 151 PIT N 1908 98-56 0.794, 2nd

35 / 154 CLE A 1921 94-60 0.793, 2nd

36 / 155 NY N 1934 93-60 0.792, 2nd

37 / 159 WAS A 1930 94-60 0.79, 2nd

38 / 160 STL N 1941 97-56 0.79, 2nd

39 / 169 BRO N 1951 97-60 0.786, 2nd

40 / 173 BOS A 1942 93-59 0.784, 2nd

41 / 178 DET A 1961 101-61 0.781, 2nd

42 / 180 BOS A 1948 96-59 0.78, 2nd

43 / 181 BOS A 1950 94-60 0.78, 3rd

44 / 183 NY N 1903 84-55 0.777, 2nd

45 / 185 BAL A 1980 100-62 0.776, 2nd

46 / 186 CHI A 1964 98-64 0.775, 2nd

47 / 187 STL N 1949 96-58 0.775, 2nd

48 / 189 NY N 1906 96-56 0.774, 2nd

49 / 191 NY A 1935 89-60 0.773, 2nd

50 / 193 CHI A 1955 91-63 0.769, 3rd

51 / 195 NY A 1934 94-60 0.768, 2nd

52 / 196 NY A 1997 96-66 0.752, 2nd

53 / 197 NY A 1985 97-64 0.766, 2nd

54 / 198 CIN N 1896 77-50 0.766, 3rd

55 / 199 BOS N 1894 83-49 0.766, 3rd

56 / 203 CLE A 1904 86-65 0.765, 4th

57 / 204 TOR A 1987 96-66 0.764, 2nd

58 / 206 PHI N 1899 94-58 0.762, 3rd

59 / 207 PIT N 1905 96-57 0.762, 2nd

60 / 211 CLE A 1952 93-61 0.76, 2nd

61 / 216 BRO N 1946 96-60 0.757, 2nd

62 / 227 MIL N 1953 92-62 0.749, 2nd

63 / 228 LA N 1962 102-63 0.747, 2nd

64 / 229 NY N 1928 93-61 0.746, 2nd

Greatest Teams Ever: Part I  Part II Part III Part IV Greatest Non-Champion Teams Ever

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