5 World Series I Wish I'd Seen

And the baseball cards that help fill in the gaps

The World Series begins on Friday, which means that fans of 28 teams are officially wintering by the hot stove already.

Sure, most of us will pick a horse for rooting and enjoy the soap opera of the Fall Classic, but our teams can’t win.

Still …

There’s nothing quite like the World Series, is there? No matter how long it’s been since your team was a participant?

Yeah, nothing like it.

Since 1983, I’ve watched part or all of every Series — still miffed about 1994 — even though I’ve never attended a Fall Classic in person.

But that means there was about 80 years’ worth of World Series action that I can only read about, or watch in grainy clips. Or … sit here and wish I had seen them unfold in real time.

Here are five of those World Series that I really wish I could have followed in the moment …

1919 World Series

I want to see the Black Sox for myself. See if I can discern the “throw.”

Make my own determination about who should be damned and who should be redeemed.

Of course, this one would have been tougher than all the rest to see, as I’d have had to actually attend the games since there was no TV.

It would have been worth the effort, though, especially since my Reds nabbed their first title in the deal.

The most readily available baseball cards dealing with the whole shebang is the 1988 Pacific Eight Men Out set that commemorated the movie.

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1955 World Series

Fans of just about any team by the Yankees — and maybe even some of them — can appreciate the historical significance and symbolism of the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers.

After losing eight World Series, the Dodgers — Dem Bums, that is — finally broke through by downing the mighty Yanks themselves in an epic seven-game series.

Johnny Padres was the only Dodger hurler to make two starts in the 1955 Fall Classic, and he was the guy on the mound when the final Yankee went down in Game 7 — MVP!

What better card to remember the triumph than the 1955 Topps Johnny Podres??

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1964 World Series

From 1921 through 1964, the Yankees never went more than three seasons without a World Series appearance.

That dynasty died on October 15, 1964, when Series MVP Bob Gibson won Game 7 and sent Mickey Mantle packing from fall baseball forever.

It wasn’t for lack of trying by the Yanks and The Mick, as New York pushed the Cardinals to the limit and Mantle hit is final three Series home runs.

The “GIBSON WINS FINALE” card in the 1965 Topps set sort of quietly tells the whole story.

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1968 World Series

I read about this epic battle in a book I checked out from my grade school library during my first year following baseball (1983).

I’ve been hooked on the mythos of the Tigers amazing victory ever since, and it’s sort of hard to believe that three-game winner Mickey Lolich doesn’t get more Jack-Morris-level adulation.

The 1969 Topps card detailing Lolich’s heroics even against a fellow October icon like Gibson is epic in its own right.

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1975 World Series

I remember reading about this epic battle in my first year, too, not long after I’d learned about the 1968 Tigers.

This one was different, though, because my Cincinnati Reds came away with the title, the first for the Big Red Machine.

I got breathless just reading the accounts of Game 6, so it’s possible I wouldn’t have survived the real thing. Worth the risk.

Topps gave us just a single World Series card in 1976, but we do get a back shot of Carlton Fisk after his foul-pole heroics, and we get to see the champion Reds.

Yay.

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—

There are plenty more Fall Classics I’d love to have seen, but those five are the top of the heap.

Which World Series do you wish you had seen?

I’d love to hear your picks.

Until next time, remember there are less than two handsful of games left this year, so enjoy every moment.

Thanks for reading.

—Adam