Your three favorite baseball teams (including year)

[Eric72]

I was born and raised in Philly. Although I moved out of the city as a relatively young adult, I only went to the immediate suburbs. I've always lived in or around Philadelphia. As one might imagine, I'm a Phillies fan.

In their long history, the Phillies have only won the World Series twice. Yep, just two. Their first was in 1980. I was eight years old. As with many childhood experiences, this is a treasured memory for me. I remember all the players from that team, from Schmidt/Carlton/Rose to Del Unser, Greg Gross, Bob Walk, and Marty Bystrom.

I don't think they were the greatest team to ever take the diamond, that's not what this is about. Simply put, the 1980 Phillies are - by far - my favorite baseball team of all time.

Their second (and, to date, only other) World Series title was in 2008. I was once again able to see the Phillies win it all, this time through the eyes of an adult. I was able to appreciate this one in a different way. Experiencing mostly bad baseball for a few decades definitely changed my perspective.

As a kid, I figured Philadelphia won almost every year. Six playoff appearances in an eight year span; from '76 through '83. Oh, how wrong I was. Over the next 20+ years, they rarely ever made the playoffs. There was that improbable NL Pennant in 1993, but that's about it.

So, what is my third favorite team? I bet some of you are thinking it's that '93 Phillies club. That'd be a good guess. They're not the ones, though. It's the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers.

That '55 Dodgers team reminds me of the Phillies I grew up with. Passionate, loyal, blue-collar fan base. Decades of promising seasons that typically ended in defeat. However, for one bight, shining moment, they stood atop the baseball world.

So, yeah. Here are my three:

1. 1980 Philadelphia Phillies
2. 2008 Philadelphia Phillies
3. 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers

What are yours?

[Kevin]

1985 Mets
1984 Mets
1983 Mets

In that order. Honorable mention to the 1979 Pirates...

[bk400]

Great post. Here are my favorites:

1986 Mets -- Like you, that was the seminal sports team from my childhood. The team of destiny. Little would we know that it would already be past Dwight Gooden's prime. And we wouldn't have a group like that ever again.

1985 Cardinals -- Prime Ozzie Smith, Willie McGee (MVP) and the introduction of Vince Coleman. Great World Series also.

1997 Indians -- Was there anyone not rooting for the 1997 Indians?

[commishbob]

1966 Orioles
1970 Orioles
1983 Orioles

I loved the '60 Baby Birds as they were the first team I followed but it's hard to take them over a series-winning club.

Honorable Mention goes out to the '65 Twins and '64 Phillies

[todeen]

Great thread! I love walking down memory lane. I grew up in Montana, and I ended up rooting for many teams.

1995 Seattle Mariners. They were the first team I was emotionally attached to. My parents had a small 15-20 inch tv in their bedroom. I watched THE HIT vs the NYY jumping up and down in their bedroom celebrating with my mom and sister. It might be the closest thing to a WS victory I've ever felt.

1997 Cleveland Indians. I rooted for Cleveland in 1995 WS, and I was certain that they would win in 1997. I was invested. My grandma told me that I was related to Tris Speaker, and he had been part of their precis WS winning teams, including 1948 as a coach. Their loss to the Marlins hurt, and it might have been the first time I cried in sports.

1999 Cincinnati Reds. Billings MT was the home of the Reds short season A ball team, the Billings Mustangs. I loved the Mustang's old WWII era wood bleacher stadium. It was filled with my boyhood dreams of becoming a major league baseball player. By 1999, Aaron Boone was playing for the Reds, and I had his MiLB card, his autograph, and he responded to my TTM auto request. He was my favorite player. 1999 was magical. It made me a lifelong Reds fan. The Reds were crushing it. They won 96 games, but didn't win their division. They had to have a 1 game playoff to decide their fate against the NYM and they lost. I couldn't believe it. I was shocked. 1999 was the last year that I have ever been fully invested in a team. 2001 Mariners are a close 4th, but I was outgrowing my boyish emotional locks to teams by then, and I wasn't as disappointed when they lost after winning 116 games. Actually, I had come to expect my teams losing. And every year since then, my teams have always come up short.

But this year, the Seattle Mariners are going to ride Big Dumper to the finish line! They will be WS Champions

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[rats60]

1960 Pirates
1971 Pirates
1979 Pirates

[SAllen2556]

1935 Tigers. Greatest Tiger team in history. 4 pennants in 11 years, two championships. The G-men: Gehringer, Greenberg, Goslin. Picked up the city of Detroit right in the heart of the Depression. Fun team to read about and collect.

1975 Reds - The Big Red Machine. I was 10, and I could get WLW am 700 on my radio from Detroit. Greatest World Series ever. Game 6! Knew the lineups by heart, had the baseball cards of every player.

1984 Tigers - last championship around here. Wire to wire. 35-5 start. Only bad thing that year was having to play the boring Padres instead of the Cubs in the World Series. And that Tiger team didn't choke away a 14 game lead like this year's stupid Tigers have somehow done! Ahhhh!

[philliesfan]

As a Phillies fan I would say:

1980 Phillies
2008 Phillies
1977 Phillies

[Balticfox]

1960 - Pittsburgh Pirates
1964 - St. Louis Cardinals
1957 - Milwaukee Braves

The above teams of course all beat the New York Yankees in the World Series. Being a Yankee hater defined my interest in baseball as a kid. As a result I never developed a single favourite baseball team above all others.

Right now the list of my favourite baseball teams stands as follows:

1) Pittsburgh Pirates
2) Detroit Tigers
3) St. Louis Cardinals
4) Toronto Blue Jays (My antipathy to having a team made up of largely Americans and Latinos claiming to represent Canada faded after I started cheering for knuckleballer R.A. Dickey.)
5) Baltimore Orioles
6) San Francisco Giants
7) Philadelphia Phillies

The Cleveland Indians were my favourite team but they're now gone as are the Oakland Athletics who were right up there in my top three. And of course the Milwaukee Braves disappeared decades ago.

[jayshum]

Originally Posted by philliesfan

As a Phillies fan I would say:

1980 Phillies
2008 Phillies
1977 Phillies

I'm with you on the 1980 and 2008 teams. 1977 was probably their best team from that era, but unfortunately the playoffs didn't go too well.

[DodgerMike22]

1988 Dodgers
2017 Dodgers
2024 Dodgers

[Beercan collector]

1934 Cardinals
1967 Cardinals
1982 Cardinals

Took 67 over 64, Bob Gibson three complete game wins - giving up three runs.
Tough to leave out 2006 and 2011.

[philliesfan]

I choose the 1977 Phillies because of the memories of the Phillies and my father. He was a big Phillies fan. I was 16 at the time and he was ill with cancer and heart conditions.

He passed away in 1981 so at least we enjoyed the World Series together. To this day, I can still remember sitting in the living room with him when the final out was made.

Bob

[Casey2296]

-
Fun question and tough decisions, these are the teams I would have loved to follow during that season.

1. 1905 NY Giants
Mattys 3 WS shutouts

2. 1924 Senators
Johnson gets his WS

3. 1931 Homestead Grays
Gibson & Paige

Honorable mention:

4. 1954 NY Giants
Willie Mays catch and WS

5. 1909 Detroit Tigers
Cobb & Wagner WS

6. 1917 Chicago White Sox
Joe Jackson WS

[Mark17]

1963 Twins (best grouping of my favorite Twins players)
1968 Tigers (interesting group of various personalities)
1970 Orioles (great team, and all of them likeable)

[todeen]

Originally Posted by Balticfox

The above teams of course all beat the New York Yankees in the World Series. Being a Yankee hater defined my interest in baseball as a kid. As a result I never developed a single favourite baseball team above all others.

I rooted for the NYY in 1996. I was upset about the Braves beating the Indians the year before. I just wanted ATL to lose. By 1998, I had come to hate the NYY, because I was rooting for Seattle. I moved from Montana to Spokane WA in 1996. Got tickets to the kingdome to see the Mariners. The Mariners of course were pretty good by the end of the 90s, but they couldn't get past the evil empire. In 2001, with Randy Johnson pitching for AZ, it felt like poetry, it was beautiful, that a former Mariner would help take down Goliath. Ever since then, I still root against ATL and NYY. Of course, now I root against Houston too!

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[Vintagevault13]

Reggie Jackson is my favorite player, so that will explain the first two. I am from Georgia, so that explains my third.

1974 Oakland A's
1977 New York Yankees
1995 Atlanta Braves (one of the all-time great pitching staffs)

[Balticfox]

Originally Posted by todeen

...because I was rooting for Seattle. I moved from Montana to Spokane WA in 1996. Got tickets to the kingdome to see the Mariners. The Mariners of course were pretty good by the end of the 90s, but they couldn't get past the evil empire.

I really liked the Seattle Mariners when they had their trident logo:



Since they changed it I've liked them a lot less. Nonetheless now that the Oakland Athletics are no more, the Mariners are easily my favourites in the AL West.

[Eric72]

Originally Posted by Balticfox

I really liked the Seattle Mariners when they had their trident logo:



Since they changed it I've liked them a lot less. Nonetheless now that the Oakland Athletics are no more, the Mariners are easily my favourites in the AL West.

One of my favorite things about vintage cards is seeing the logos/uniforms from the '70s and earlier. This Mariners logo, those striped Astros uniforms, the collared White Sox shirts, etc.

[Steve D]

1. 1984 Padres
2. 1998 Padres
3. 1976 Padres


Steve

[cgjackson222]

Great thread!

1) 1986 Mets - I'm from Long Island, not far from where the Mets play. What a bunch of characters.

2) 1947 Dodgers - Great bunch of guys around Jackie. So glad they chose this team to integrate.

3) 1971 Pirates - Very cool group, and World Series champs.

Honorable mention: 1951 Giants, 1948 Indians, 1975 Reds.

[TUM301]

1975 Red Sox
2004 Red Sox
1970 Reds tied 1969 Mets

[nolemmings]

1987 Twins: Finally, Minnesota wins it all at something during my lifetime. It was a blast watching the Kiddie corps put it all together at once: Hrbek, Gaetti, Puckett, Brunanski and Viola.

1978 Yankees: Was (and still am) a HUGE fan of Thurman Munson and Ron Guidry. Gator goes 25-3-- best pitching season in my lifetime IMHO (suck eggs Pedro). Bombers take last 4 in World Series. Sweet.

1991 Twins: Last to first. Winners of most exciting World Series ever. ROY and Cy Young finishers 2, 4, and 7. Lots of guys to like on that team. Home-grown Jack tosses game seven shutout--10 innings no less.

[Section103]

1993 Giants
2010 Giants
2012 Giants

Special mention to the 1989 and 2024 Texas A&M baseball teams if we're counting non-MLB clubs.

[KJA]

1990 Reds

[Gorditadogg]

1. 1977 White Sox - Southside Hitmen

I was a Yankees fan growing up but was in college in 77, a couple hours from Chicago. My roommate and I would take our girlfriends up to see the Sox. Cheap dates, we'd get tickets behind the left field wall, first row lots of times, and we'd drink beer and yell at Ralph Garr. That was a fun team: Richie Zisk, Oscar Gamble, Eric Soderholm. They had some bangers, but couldn't stay with the Yankees at the end.

2. 1978 Yankees

This was the year the Yanks were down 15 games in July and came back to beat the Red Sox. What a stretch run. I would go to the school library every day to read the New York papers' accounts of the game. Guidry went 25-3 that year. Bucky Dent hit The Pop Fly Heard 'Round the World. Just an amazing late season run.

3. 1984 Cubs

By 1984 I was out of college and working in Chicago, where I was dating my future wife, a big Cubs fan. Back in '84 the Wrigley Field bleachers were still general admission so on Sunday mornings when the Cubs were in town we'd get coffee and go wait in line for the gates to open. Leon Durham, Gary Matthews and of course Ryno. Rick Sutcliffe went 16-1. Eckersley was also a starter. Bowa at short, Ron Cey on third. A really fun team. But they couldn't get past the Padres in the playoffs

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