Most Likely To Suceed

It was inevitable. Now that there's a Democrat in the White House, the Yankees got another ring. I'm working on a project where I am looking at the biggest underdogs to win the World Series. The flip side of that question is also interesting. As far as I can tell, there were five World Series winners who had a 60% chance or better that went on to win the Fall Classic. (There are also two teams that had that chance but were upset.)

5. 1907 Chicago Cubs 60%
4. 1998 New York Yankees 60.8%
3. 1944 Saint Louis Cardinals 61% - They played the Browns, so the odds were in their favor
2. 1927 Yankees 61.5%
1. 1932 Yankees 61.8%

There. You have two teams (1927 and 1998) that are in the greatest teams ever debate, a Deadball Era dynasty, a wartime team and the 1932 Yankees? The NL was won that year by the Cubs who "only" won 90 games, so there was a 17 game differential between New York and Chicago. Also, unless I missed someone, that Yankee team had more Hall of Famers than any other champ. They had 9 (Combs, Dickey, Gehrig, Gomez, Lazzeri, Pennock, Ruffing, Ruth, and Sewell.) That era may be overrepresented in Cooperstown, but that's still an impressive array of talent.