Super Bowl: Will We Ever See a Run in Baseball Today like New England Patriots?
As the New England Patriots get ready to play in their ninth Super Bowl in 18 years, we look at the possibility of run like that happening in baseball.
While I honestly believe it’s a lot harder to win a World Series today than it is a Super Bowl, what the New England Patriots have done for nearly 20 years now is truly incredible.
They’ve won their division 10 straight years and in 16 of the last 18 years. The only streak comparable to that in baseball is the Atlanta Braves winning their division 14 straight years, but they did have nearly as much success in the postseason as the Patriots.
On Sunday the Patriots will not only be playing in their ninth Super Bowl in 18 years, but they’ll be looking for their sixth Super Bowl title in that span.
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Back in the day the New York Yankees had a similar run of success in the postseason when it was a lot easier to win a World Series (no wild card, division, or even championship series).
From 1927 to 1953 the New York Yankees appear in 16 World Series and won 15 of them. You could widen that to 1921 to 1964 when the Yankees appeared in 29 World Series and won 20 of them.
That run is even more impressive than what the Patriots are currently doing, but that was a much different time, and it was a lot easier to win a World Series. We will never see anything like that again.
So what is possible in today’s world of baseball?
Another New England team, the Boston Red Sox, have had a similar run of success since 2004 reaching and winning four World Series titles.
From 1996 to 2009 the Yankees appeared in seven World Series and won five of them.
The St. Louis Cardinals appeared in four World Series between 2004 and 2013 with two titles.
And from 2002 to 2014 the San Francisco Giants were in four World Series and won three of them.
The one thing you will notice about all of these teams is that they play in large markets. It’s virtually impossible for a low, or even mid-market team, to sustain that type of success over a 10 or 20 year period.
The trend in baseball right now is to rebuild for three to four years and then hope to create a run of success that lasts five or so years.
We saw the Kansas City Royals do this recently reaching the World Series in 2014 and then winning it a year later.
The Houston Astros went through a long rebuild before winning in 2017 and are in the middle of a strong run of success.
If a team is going to see a long run of success in today’s game, they will have to continually restock the farm system, while also having the available funds to plug holes in free agency.
That’s why the Red Sox and Yankees are so successful right now. They both did a great job of building up their farm systems to create a young core of talent, and then they have the money to plug holes with star players in free agency.
Bottom line, we will never see another run like the Yankees had back in the day, or even what the Patriots are doing now.
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Instead, I think it’s more realistic for teams to have runs like the Red Sox, Giants and Cardinals had recently — reaching four World Series in a 10-year span.