Most Winningest Baseball Teams of All time

MLB (Major League Baseball) is known for its famous 700 clubs around the United States. The cluster consists of outstanding teams with a compiled percentage of victories reaching .700 or even higher throughout an entire season i-e at least 130 games. However, the MLB version is far more exclusive compared to the one popular on TV. In the history of MLB, you can see only about a dozen members are counted in the .700 club. You will see many MLB fans wearing custom baseball uniforms in big games to pay tribute to these teams. We will move from the recent members of this club to the history-making teams.

The recent winningest team of .700 club

Since MLB is a highly competitive league, a percentage of .700 victories is a monumental achievement. Los Angeles Dodgers have been the most recent team to achieve that goal in 2020, with its 43-17 record, equaling a .717 winning percentage. They obviously also won the World Series in six games against the Tampa Bay Rays. However, the MLB fans say that the Dodgers could enroll in the .700 club because of the advantage of playing 60 games only in 2020 due to COVID-induced protocols. It is 102 games short of the standard games as per the current MLB system. But, it doesn’t lessen the significance of carrying the victory percentage of .700 because winning at such a high level is not an easy task, an advantage or not.

Only three teams could hit the mark of 60 games in the past six seasons rolling along at the pace. Besides the Dodgers in 2020, the cubs and Astros also achieved their .700 winning percentage in 2016 and 2017, respectively. Both teams earned it at 42-18 after 60 games. Similar to the Dodgers, Cubs and Astros also went on to achieve victory in the World Series, although with dipping percentages to .623 for the Astros and .640 for the Cubs. So, their percentages are lofty but, unfortunately, not .700.

The history-making winningest team

In the early days of the baseball league, the league consisted of short seasons, making it easier and common for the teams to reach the .700 winning percentages. The records tell us before the league lengthened to 132 games per season in the 1880s, every team had to complete 18 games to be accepted as a season of Major League with at least a .700 winning percentage. The Boston Red Stockings hold this record. The club won 71 out of 79 games in the 1875 National Association, an originator of the current National League. Such a high number of victories awarded them with a .899 winning percentage.

The 1St. Louis Maroons topped to .800 winning percentage in the 1884 Union Association in the season of 13 games, and Boston Red Stockings did the same in the 1872 National Association in the season of 47 games. Both are massive achievements for the teams despite the difference in the number of games.

Even if the best playing teams have performed well all season, it does not guarantee anything for post-season success. They played at least 130 games but distinctly failed to achieve milestones in the post-seasons. In fact, out of twelve teams who achieved a .700 or higher winning percentage, only five could win the World Series. Five out of seven remaining teams lost the World Series. One was eliminated even before reaching the Series, while one accumulated a .700 percentage record in a season that did not have a post-season.

The Yankees, the winningest

The New York Yankees is the most winningest team of all time with the highest winning percentage of .570 in a regular season. On the other hand, The Miami Marlins score the lowest with .461. The record for most overall wins, i-e 11, 301, it goes to the San Francisco Giants. It is the first of three NYY teams on MLB history list, all of them winning the World Series eventually.

1939 is the year of Lou Gehrig, the star batsman of the Yankees team. Gehrig, the captain and the long-term first baseman of the team, could complete the season that year. But unfortunately, he had to leave the lineup in May and passed away two years later due to ALS. So, we can see it as an ironic situation because the Yanks were still as good in the season as they were even after not being able to utilize the productive performance out of their start captain, Gehrig. Instead, Joe DiMaggio filled the gap by batting .381, while four other regular players followed him with their performances above .300. Eventually, the team averaged 6.4 runs each game. They were able to achieve a half-run more against all their competitors.

Astonishingly, the Yankees scored double figures 31 times in 1939. The Philadelphia Athletics are the first-hand witness of New York’s offense that year. The Yanks also defeated the visiting A’s at Shibe Park in a June 28 doubleheader with 23-2 and 10-0. They scored nine of their eighteen at-bats. The Yanks’ and A’s average score that season was 8-3.

New York were performers in both departments, pitch and hit. They also led the AL in the lowest runs allowed by giving up only 3.7 when other teams averaged 5.2 runs per nine innings in the season. The Red Ruffing came out as a 21-game winner. However, the seven pitchers of the New York Yankees won in double figures. All in all, the Pythagorean record of the New York Yankees in 1939 was 111-43, a winning percentage of .721. It was five games superior to how productively they played that year. The MLB fans still acknowledge their history-making performance by wearing custom baseball uniforms and other merchandise designed after the Yankees’ attire.