It may not be reflected in the discrepancy in major league payrolls, but parity exists on the field in Major League Baseball in 2007 like at no time in the game’s modern history.
Not only has there been a different World Series winner every year in this century, but the gap between the game’s winningest and losingest teams this season is on a record-breaking pace. Through games of Wednesday, the Los Angeles Angels and Cleveland Indians shared the majors’ best winning percentage at .592. The Tampa Bay Devil Ray had the worst at .412. The 180 percentage point gap is on a record pace. Only in 2000, when there was a .198 difference between the winningest (San Francisco Giants, .599) and losingest teams (Philadelphia Phillies/Chicago Cubs, .401) has the gap been less than 200 points. In fact, 2000 and 2007 are the only seasons in big league history in which the team with the best record had a winning percentage below .600 and the losingest team had a record above .400.
By contrast, the 10 greatest gaps between the winningest and losingest teams in the same season all occurred more than 50 years ago. The biggest single discrepancy occurred in 1909 when the Pittsburgh Pirates won at a .724 clip and the Washington Senators won at a .276 pace—a difference of 448 points. The greatest three gaps in the game’s modern history all occurred between 1902 and 1909.
Here are the 10 largest differences between the winningest and losingest teams in the same season in major league history: |
| |
| Year |
Winningest Team |
Losingest Team |
Diff. |
| 1909 |
Pittsburgh Pirates (.724) |
Washington Senators (.276) |
.448 |
| 1906 |
Chicago Cubs (.763) |
Boston Americans (.318) |
.445 |
| 1904 |
NY Giants (.693) |
Washington Senators (.252) |
.441 |
| 1919 |
Cincinnati Reds (.686) |
Philadelphia A’s (.257) |
.429 |
| 1939 |
New York Yankees (.702) |
St. Louis Browns (.279) |
.423 |
| 1932 |
New York Yankees (.695) |
Boston Red Sox (.279) |
.416 |
| 1935 |
Chicago Cubs (.649) |
Boston Braves (.248) |
.401 |
| 1942 |
St. Louis Cardinals (.688) |
Philadelphia Phillies (.278) |
.390 |
| 1954 |
Cleveland Indians (.721) |
Philadelphia A’s (.331) |
.390 |
| 1902 |
Pittsburgh Pirates (.741) |
New York Giants (.353) |
.388 | |
| --ALLAN SIMPSON |
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