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We all know that Casey and his magic bag arrived in 1949 and the Yankees went on to win 5 straight world series
I will play my (oh no not again) devil's advocate and postulate that the 1971-1975 A's are somewhat comparable
here are some thoughts
1) The Yankees played 5 post season series and won all 5
2) however, they had a subway series in 4 of the 5 series so there was no travel in 4 of their 5 series (yes it was the same for 4 of their opponents)
3) In 1949 they played the Dodgers, both teams had very narrow pennant wins, the Yanks had home field advantage but won all 3 games in Brooklyn
4) In 1950, the Yankees won the AL by 3 games in another tight race, but the NL was even tighter as the Phillies clinched the pennant in the final game of the season in extra innings. The depleted Phillies pitching staff (due to the race and losing Curt Simmons to Military service) were forced to use a reliever to start game 1. While Konstanty was the NL MVP he never started a game all year and averaged abut 2 innings per game in relief. A narrow 1-0 win for the Yanks in Game 1 was matched by another narrow win in Game 2, as Robin Roberts, the one decent Phillie starter outside of Simmons all year was forced to pitch on two days rest after a 10 inning game 154. He also narrowly lost 2-1 to Vic Raschi who pitched on 5 days rest. The Phillies really had no other decent starters and game 3 was yet another 1 run game 3-2, and the Yanks finally broke thru with a bigger win in Game 4 5-2. Would the series had been different had Simmons been available down the stretch and the Phillies won with a little margin and had fully rested starters for Games 1 and 2? Well they really lost because of lack of hitting not pitching, but still.
5) Once again, in 1951 the Yankees had a comfortable pennant win while the Giants had to go thru a 3 game playoff to reach the series. The Yanks did not have Whitey Ford in 1951 or 1952 due to MS, but their big three had 5 days rest each before the series started while The Giants were forced to use their 4th or 5th best pitcher in game 1 and the others had less rest than their Yankee counterparts. The Giants took a 2-1 series lead before the Yanks ran the table the next 3. The subway series did have a 1 game break between game 3 and 4, I am wondering why? Otherwise they played consecutive days for games 1-2-3 and 4-5-6.
6) In 1952 the Ddgers had a 4.5 game winning margin and the Yanks just 2.0 Again the Yanks were missing a young Whitey Ford while the Dodgers were missing their ace Don Newcombe to MS. No rest between all 7 games and the Dodgers led 2 games to 1 and 3 games to 2 before the Yanks took games 6 3-2 and Game 7 4-2. They matched the 1936-39 Yanks with 4 straght WS wins.
7) In 1953, the Dodgers were monsters on offense but so-so pitching still missing Newcombe. But Whitey Ford returned and had a stellar 18-6 record. The teams split the first 4 games before the Yanks took game 6 11-7 and game 7 4-3 to capture their unmatched 5th straight world championship.
Again very very impressive but in 4 years they never had to travel for a series game, and in 2 years they played teams with somewhat depleted pitching staffs due to very tight pennant races (and MS), particularly 1950. And they only traveled once, all of 90 miles in those 5 series.
Now let's look at the 1971-1975 A's.
1) we will look at 1971 and 1975 first. The A's won decisive division races both years, In 1971 they played .627 ball and in 1975 despite losing Catfish Hunter, their Hof F pitcher to free agancey, they again played over .600 ball (best in the AL). Most pundits expected Vida Bue to win Game 1 of the 1971 ALCS but had Baltimore with their 4 20 game winners and star studded team to take their third straight ALCS. Blue was actually leading 3-1 after 6 IP but the Orioles rallied for 4 runs to take the game and then cruise to the sweep. In 1975, the A's were to play the first two games in Fenway and they were in a quandry as their two best pitchers (since Hunter left) were LH Blue and Holtzman, but you dont want to start LH in Fenway. I feel if they chose to start a RH in 1 of the 2 games at Fenway or IF they were able to have the first two games at home they would have done much better. As it was they got desperate and started Holtzman on short rest in Game 3 and that failed and they got swept. Note Jim Rice was unable to play for the Sox in the short series to be fair. But keep in mind in both 1971 and 1975 the A's had to play games 3 time zones away.
2) so 1972 began a stretch where the A's became the first team ever winning 6 straight post season series. They also had to travel to the eastern time zone in 1972 (Detroit and Cinci), 1973 (Baltimore and NY Mets) and 1974 - for the ALCS again in Baltimore. The one time they stayed on the west coast, 1974 vs the Dodgers was probably their best played of all 6 series (or all 8 including 71 and 75). But even that was over 500 miles away.
3) In 1972 they played a bitter hard fought series vs the Tigers winning a close game 5. But they lost Reggie Jackson for the 1972 series. The Reds would have been favored anyway but after Jackson was ruled out, they should have won easily. But the A's surprised the Reds and took some close games and took a 3-1 series lead before hanging on to win Game 7.
4) In 1973, they got their revenge on the O's, losing twice to Cy Young Winner Jim Palmer but taking a decisive Game 5 3-0 behind Catfish. They then defeated a game NY Mets in 7 games for the series.
5) In 1974, the lost game 1 then held the O's to 1 run over the final 3 games to make it to their third straight series. This time in a series that was close in each game (4 of the 5 games were scored 3-2). Oh by the way they changed managers this year.
So the somewhat thin arguments the A's have are
1) they were the first team to win 6 straight post season series
2) they won the 72 series without their best player
3) they had what could have become a disruptive manager change for 1974
INSERT: they also lost their best pitcher, a Hall of Famer to free agency after 1974
4) unlike the Yanks who did not travel at all in 4 of their 5 series and only had a short 90 mile ride in the fifth, the A's had multiple east coast trips in 7 of their 8 series (or 5 of their 6 in their run) and even their LA trip was 4-5 times farther than the NY to Philly trip
5) they for the most part did not have the chance to set up their rotation like the Yankees did due to having back to back post seasons series in their WS years
6) they really did not have the benefit of an opponent with a disrupted rotation like the Yankees did in 1950 and 1951
EDIT: for comparison purposes, the 1969-1971 Orioles (or 1969-1974) were one of baseball's all time great teams, but although they cruised to 3 straight sweeps in the ALCS, they lost 2 of the 3 world series they played in and of course did not make the playoffs in 1972 and lost the 73 ALCS (3-2) and the 74 ALCS (3-1)
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I will play my (oh no not again) devil's advocate and postulate that the 1971-1975 A's are somewhat comparable
here are some thoughts
1) The Yankees played 5 post season series and won all 5
2) however, they had a subway series in 4 of the 5 series so there was no travel in 4 of their 5 series (yes it was the same for 4 of their opponents)
3) In 1949 they played the Dodgers, both teams had very narrow pennant wins, the Yanks had home field advantage but won all 3 games in Brooklyn
4) In 1950, the Yankees won the AL by 3 games in another tight race, but the NL was even tighter as the Phillies clinched the pennant in the final game of the season in extra innings. The depleted Phillies pitching staff (due to the race and losing Curt Simmons to Military service) were forced to use a reliever to start game 1. While Konstanty was the NL MVP he never started a game all year and averaged abut 2 innings per game in relief. A narrow 1-0 win for the Yanks in Game 1 was matched by another narrow win in Game 2, as Robin Roberts, the one decent Phillie starter outside of Simmons all year was forced to pitch on two days rest after a 10 inning game 154. He also narrowly lost 2-1 to Vic Raschi who pitched on 5 days rest. The Phillies really had no other decent starters and game 3 was yet another 1 run game 3-2, and the Yanks finally broke thru with a bigger win in Game 4 5-2. Would the series had been different had Simmons been available down the stretch and the Phillies won with a little margin and had fully rested starters for Games 1 and 2? Well they really lost because of lack of hitting not pitching, but still.
5) Once again, in 1951 the Yankees had a comfortable pennant win while the Giants had to go thru a 3 game playoff to reach the series. The Yanks did not have Whitey Ford in 1951 or 1952 due to MS, but their big three had 5 days rest each before the series started while The Giants were forced to use their 4th or 5th best pitcher in game 1 and the others had less rest than their Yankee counterparts. The Giants took a 2-1 series lead before the Yanks ran the table the next 3. The subway series did have a 1 game break between game 3 and 4, I am wondering why? Otherwise they played consecutive days for games 1-2-3 and 4-5-6.
6) In 1952 the Ddgers had a 4.5 game winning margin and the Yanks just 2.0 Again the Yanks were missing a young Whitey Ford while the Dodgers were missing their ace Don Newcombe to MS. No rest between all 7 games and the Dodgers led 2 games to 1 and 3 games to 2 before the Yanks took games 6 3-2 and Game 7 4-2. They matched the 1936-39 Yanks with 4 straght WS wins.
7) In 1953, the Dodgers were monsters on offense but so-so pitching still missing Newcombe. But Whitey Ford returned and had a stellar 18-6 record. The teams split the first 4 games before the Yanks took game 6 11-7 and game 7 4-3 to capture their unmatched 5th straight world championship.
Again very very impressive but in 4 years they never had to travel for a series game, and in 2 years they played teams with somewhat depleted pitching staffs due to very tight pennant races (and MS), particularly 1950. And they only traveled once, all of 90 miles in those 5 series.
Now let's look at the 1971-1975 A's.
1) we will look at 1971 and 1975 first. The A's won decisive division races both years, In 1971 they played .627 ball and in 1975 despite losing Catfish Hunter, their Hof F pitcher to free agancey, they again played over .600 ball (best in the AL). Most pundits expected Vida Bue to win Game 1 of the 1971 ALCS but had Baltimore with their 4 20 game winners and star studded team to take their third straight ALCS. Blue was actually leading 3-1 after 6 IP but the Orioles rallied for 4 runs to take the game and then cruise to the sweep. In 1975, the A's were to play the first two games in Fenway and they were in a quandry as their two best pitchers (since Hunter left) were LH Blue and Holtzman, but you dont want to start LH in Fenway. I feel if they chose to start a RH in 1 of the 2 games at Fenway or IF they were able to have the first two games at home they would have done much better. As it was they got desperate and started Holtzman on short rest in Game 3 and that failed and they got swept. Note Jim Rice was unable to play for the Sox in the short series to be fair. But keep in mind in both 1971 and 1975 the A's had to play games 3 time zones away.
2) so 1972 began a stretch where the A's became the first team ever winning 6 straight post season series. They also had to travel to the eastern time zone in 1972 (Detroit and Cinci), 1973 (Baltimore and NY Mets) and 1974 - for the ALCS again in Baltimore. The one time they stayed on the west coast, 1974 vs the Dodgers was probably their best played of all 6 series (or all 8 including 71 and 75). But even that was over 500 miles away.
3) In 1972 they played a bitter hard fought series vs the Tigers winning a close game 5. But they lost Reggie Jackson for the 1972 series. The Reds would have been favored anyway but after Jackson was ruled out, they should have won easily. But the A's surprised the Reds and took some close games and took a 3-1 series lead before hanging on to win Game 7.
4) In 1973, they got their revenge on the O's, losing twice to Cy Young Winner Jim Palmer but taking a decisive Game 5 3-0 behind Catfish. They then defeated a game NY Mets in 7 games for the series.
5) In 1974, the lost game 1 then held the O's to 1 run over the final 3 games to make it to their third straight series. This time in a series that was close in each game (4 of the 5 games were scored 3-2). Oh by the way they changed managers this year.
So the somewhat thin arguments the A's have are
1) they were the first team to win 6 straight post season series
2) they won the 72 series without their best player
3) they had what could have become a disruptive manager change for 1974
INSERT: they also lost their best pitcher, a Hall of Famer to free agency after 1974
4) unlike the Yanks who did not travel at all in 4 of their 5 series and only had a short 90 mile ride in the fifth, the A's had multiple east coast trips in 7 of their 8 series (or 5 of their 6 in their run) and even their LA trip was 4-5 times farther than the NY to Philly trip
5) they for the most part did not have the chance to set up their rotation like the Yankees did due to having back to back post seasons series in their WS years
6) they really did not have the benefit of an opponent with a disrupted rotation like the Yankees did in 1950 and 1951
EDIT: for comparison purposes, the 1969-1971 Orioles (or 1969-1974) were one of baseball's all time great teams, but although they cruised to 3 straight sweeps in the ALCS, they lost 2 of the 3 world series they played in and of course did not make the playoffs in 1972 and lost the 73 ALCS (3-2) and the 74 ALCS (3-1)
OK
pile it on
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