Franchise World Series Debuts

Congratulations to the Tampa Bay Rays for earning their franchise's first trip to the Fall Classic in its short history, especially the five former Hudson Valley Renegades who will be appearing in the 2008 World Series: Evan Longoria, James Shields, Andy Sonnanstine, Dan Wheeler and Fernando Perez.

I hope to be contributing to a World Series preview for Seamheads.com. If not, I may very well do my own here. But, for now, here's a little piece on the last ten teams to appear in their first World Series.

The most recent two first-time World Series entrants were embarrassed pretty badly.

• 2007: Colorado Rockies lost 4-0 to Boston Red Sox
• 2005: Houston Astros lost 4-0 to Chicago White Sox.

Prior to that, four consecutive franchises won their Fall Classic debuts, three of them requiring the full 7 games to do so:

• 2002: Anaheim Angels defeated San Francisco Giants, 4-3.
• 2001: Arizona Diamondbacks defeated New York Yankees, 4-3.
• 1997: Florida Marlins defeated Cleveland Indians, 4-3.
• 1992: Toronto Blue Jays defeated Atlanta Braves, 4-2.

Rounding out the most recent ten teams playing in the World Series for the first time in their franchise's history:

• 1984: San Diego Padres lost to Detroit Tigers, 4-1.
• 1982: Milwaukee Brewers lost to St. Louis Cardinals, 4-3.
• 1980: Kansas City Royals lost to Philadelphia Phillies, 4-2.
• 1969: New York Mets defeated Baltimore Orioles, 4-1.

Overall, that's 5 wins and 5 losses for the first-timers, 2-2 for the American League teams and 3-3 for the National League teams. This year's Rays will look to break that 8-game losing streak established by the 2005 Astros and 2007 Rockies. Expect them to have very little difficulty with that.