1. Chicago Cubs, 1905-1910
Statistically, the pinnacle dynasty of baseball history took the field more than a century ago.
Between 1905 and 1910, player-manager Frank Chance led the Cubs to four pennants, two of those (1907-08) ending in World Series wins over the Tigers.
This team, however, may be better known for its defeats. Its six-game World Series loss to the cross-town White Sox in 1906 — after winning a record 116 regular season games — still baffles historians. Then in 1910, the Cubs won 104 regular-season games only to lose the World Series to the Athletics in five games.
Chance’s Cubs were best known for their imposing pitching staff. Only in 1908 did they fail to lead the National League in staff ERA. Mordecai Brown won 145 games against just 56 defeats during those six seasons. Ed Reulbach was 109-47, Jack Pfeister was 69-36 and Orval Overall was 104-66. That, friends, is a rotation.
The offense could be ordinary for that dead ball era, although the Cubs did lead the league in batting average in 1906.
There were three dominant National League teams during this era, the Cubs, Giants and Pirates. It is a measure of the dynasty’s dominance that Chicago went 146-117 against those two rivals.
Those assets and others enabled the Cubs to pile up the best six-season record in major league history, 622 victories against just 310 defeats. That’s a breathtaking .667 winning percentage, a full 20 percentage points better than the next best the history of MLB dynasties has to offer.
Consider that in the modern game it is the rare team that plays .667 ball for even one full season; the Cubs did it for six straight.