Rank all of the World Series winners

[redban]

Rank all of the World Series winners. You can start from any year.

I'll do from 1996-2011, since 1996 was when I first started watching baseball:

#1 - 1998 Yankees: Set a regular season record with 114 wins. Jeter, Bernie, Pettite, Posada, O'Neal, Tino, Rivera,etc were all in their prime.
#2 - 2004 Red Sox
#3 - 1999 Yankees
#4 - 2001 Diamondbacks: Randy + Schilling
#5 - 2009 Yankees
#6 - 1997 Marlins: They often get short-changed because they were a Wild-Card, but they were a team with many big-names. Sheffield, Leiter, Alou, Brown, Renteria, etc
#7 - 2002 Angels
#8 - 1996 Yankees
#9 - 2007 Red Sox
#10 - 2008 Phillies
#11 - 2003 Marlins: Short-changed for the same reason as the 1997 bunch.
#12 - 2000 Yankees: The worst of the 5 Yankee teams to win it. O'Neal, Tino, Knoblauch, Broscius, and others were past their prime, and Clemens had a poor year.
#13 - 2010 Giants: Excellent pitching, but what a pitiful line-up.
#14 - 2006 Cardinals: 83 wins in the regular season. Many years, that's good for 3rd place in a division. How they beat the 06' Mets is a wonder.
#15 - 2011 Cardinals

[chicagowhitesox1173]

The list looks pretty good to me although I would probably take 2002 Angels over the 97 Marlins.

[ian2813]

If we're allowed to limit the teams to ones we personally saw, then that's what I'll do. Since you didn't specify what we had to rank them in terms of, I guess that leaves it open-ended. I choose to rank them by how much I liked them.

#1 - 2005 Chicago White Sox - The first and only Chicago team I've ever seen win the World Series. It will always be a cherished memory.

#2 - 2004 Boston Red Sox - As a Chicago fan I could sympathize with the Boston fans who had that drought on their shoulders. To see one of baseball's "curses" exorcised gave me some hope for my own teams.

#3 - 1995 Atlanta Braves - I was pulling for the Braves that year because I knew about their World Series losses earlier in the decade. I was really happy to see them redeem themselves. I remember having a lot of respect for that team.

#4 - 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks - A team full of veterans looking for a title, and they clinched it in one of the most memorable ways possible.

#5 - 2010 San Francisco Giants - Even though I was rooting for the Rangers in the World Series, I couldn't help but feel happy for the long-suffering Giant fans who genuinely appreciated this team.

#6 - 1996 New York Yankees - As soon as the Braves won it, I no longer had any reason to feel sorry for them, so they quickly became one of my most hated teams. I loved watching the ringless veterans on the Yankees defeat them in the World Series. This was probably the only time in my life I really loved a Yankee team.

#7 - 2002 Anaheim Angels - They just felt like a team of destiny that year, and since I always love seeing franchises get their first titles, their run was a fun ride.

#8 - 1997 Florida Marlins - Once again, ringless veterans gave me a reason to be happy for them.

#9 - 2008 Philadelphia Phillies - I really liked the Rays team they beat in the World Series, so I was disappointed to see them lose. The Phillies were a pretty cool team in their own right, though.

#10 - 1999 New York Yankees - Like I said before, I developed an intense hatred of the Braves the year after they won the 1995 World Series, so while this Yankee team didn't thrill me, I was happy to see them take down Atlanta.

#11 - 1998 New York Yankees - 1998 was a weird year for me and baseball. My family moved to a new state in August, and I guess the adjustment threw me out of whack a bit. While I still enjoyed watching ballgames, I found myself unable to get too emotionally involved with the postseason. I didn't really watch the World Series, and I was fairly indifferent about this Yankee team that won it.

#12 - 2003 Florida Marlins - I was glad they beat the Yankees, but after they'd beaten the Cubs it was hard to be happy for them.

#13 - 2009 New York Yankees - I wasn't too emotionally invested in the 2009 season, since there really weren't many good rooting options among the contenders. I was unable to watch the World Series due to the fact that I didn't have a digital TV hookup, and frankly, I didn't feel I missed anything.

#14 - 2006 St. Louis Cardinals - I hate the Cardinals, and I hate the fact that they beat a Tiger team I really wanted to see win it. Go figure that the one year they didn't look like a serious threat going into the playoffs was the year they actually won the World Series. The night they closed it out was a difficult day for me personally too, so that only made it worse.

#15 - 2000 New York Yankees - The same team winning the World Series three years in a row? That's like getting the same Christmas present every year!

#16 - 2007 Boston Red Sox - These guys eliminated both the Indians and the Rockies in the postseason, two teams I would've been overjoyed to see win it. Their fans couldn't have been much less classy about it either. Just a horrible, horrible memory. On the bright side though, at least it forced Red Sox fans to stop thinking of themselves as eternal underdogs.

#17 - 2011 St. Louis Cardinals - This team's championship will always be one of my most painful baseball memories. The only way I'll ever consider forgiving them is if the Rangers win the World Series this year. Come on, Texas!