The rain delay. It only lasted 17 minutes, but those 17 minutes in Cleveland basically altered the trajectory of baseball history. When people talk about the world series last 10 years, they usually start with the 2016 Chicago Cubs.
Honestly? They should.
That Game 7 win over the then-Indians didn't just break a 108-year drought; it set a viewership bar that nobody has touched since. Over 40 million people watched Kris Bryant throw to Anthony Rizzo for the final out. Since then, we've seen a pandemic-shortened season, a cheating scandal that still makes fans see red, and the rise of a Dodgers dynasty that looks like it's playing a completely different sport than everyone else.
Why the World Series last 10 years feels like two different eras
If you look at the stats, the game has shifted. Between 2016 and 2025, the way teams actually win these things has evolved from "ride your ace" to "pray your bullpen doesn't implode by the sixth inning."
Take a look at the winners since 2016:
- 2016: Chicago Cubs (The Curse Breakers)
- 2017: Houston Astros (The Controversial One)
- 2018: Boston Red Sox (Total Dominance)
- 2019: Washington Nationals (The Road Warriors)
- 2020: Los Angeles Dodgers (The Bubble Ring)
- 2021: Atlanta Braves (The Underdog Surge)
- 2022: Houston Astros (The Redemption)
- 2023: Texas Rangers (The New Blood)
- 2024: Los Angeles Dodgers (The Yankee Killer)
- 2025: Los Angeles Dodgers (The Back-to-Back Dynasty)
The Dodgers just finished a massive repeat, beating the Toronto Blue Jays in a seven-game thriller that ended in November 2025. It’s the first time we’ve seen a back-to-back champ since the Yankees did it in the late 90s.
You've got people arguing that the 2020 title doesn't count because of the short season. That's kinda silly. Everyone played by the same rules, and the Dodgers had to navigate a neutral-site bubble in Texas. If anything, that road was harder.
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The Houston Astros and the "Asterisk" debate
You can't talk about the world series last 10 years without mentioning 2017. Most fans still haven't forgiven the Astros for the sign-stealing scandal. Mike Fiers blew the whistle, and suddenly those home-run stats for Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman looked a lot different.
But here is the thing: they came back and won it again in 2022.
In that 2022 series against the Phillies, Dusty Baker finally got his ring as a manager. It sort of validated that the Houston core was elite regardless of the trash cans. They threw a combined no-hitter in Game 4 of that series. That isn't cheating; that's just nasty pitching.
The weirdest trends we've seen lately
The 2019 Washington Nationals did something that sounds statistically impossible. They won the World Series without winning a single home game. Think about that. They went 4-0 in Houston. Every single game in that series was won by the visiting team. It defies logic.
Then you have the 2023 Texas Rangers. They were a team that spent half a billion dollars on a middle infield (Corey Seager and Marcus Semien) and it actually worked. Usually, "buying" a championship leads to a disaster, but the Rangers steamrolled the Diamondbacks.
Seager became only the fourth player ever to win two World Series MVPs. He’s in the same conversation as Sandy Koufax and Reggie Jackson now. That's heavy.
Ratings and the "Shohei Effect"
People keep saying baseball is dying, but the 2024 and 2025 ratings say otherwise. When the Dodgers played the Yankees in '24, the star power was blinding. Judge vs. Ohtani. It was exactly what the league needed.
The 2025 series against Toronto was even more intense. Game 7 pulled in a massive 26.88 million viewers in the U.S. alone. When you add in the Japanese audience watching Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Shohei Ohtani, the numbers are staggering. Yamamoto actually took home the 2025 World Series MVP after pitching a gem in Game 6 and coming back to close out Game 7 in the 11th inning.
What most fans get wrong about these champions
The biggest misconception? That the "best" team always wins.
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In the world series last 10 years, the team with the most regular-season wins has only won the title a handful of times. The 2021 Braves only won 88 games. They were barely above .500 for half the year! But they traded for an entire new outfield at the deadline (Jorge Soler, Eddie Rosario, Joc Pederson) and got hot at the right time.
Baseball isn't about being the best from April to September. It's about having three healthy starters and a closer who doesn't get the yips in October.
Actionable insights for the modern fan
If you're trying to make sense of the current landscape, stop looking at "prestige." The Yankees hadn't even made a World Series in this decade until 2024, and they lost that one in five games. The power has shifted West and South.
- Watch the bullpen usage: In the 2025 series, Dave Roberts used 14 different pitchers. The "starter" is becoming a suggestion, not a rule.
- Follow the money, but check the farm: The Dodgers win because they spend, yes, but also because they develop guys like Will Smith and Gavin Lux.
- Don't ignore the international market: The last two years proved that the NPB-to-MLB pipeline is the most important factor in building a championship roster.
The next few years are likely going to be dominated by this Dodgers-led "super-team" era, but if the 2023 Rangers or 2019 Nationals taught us anything, it's that a random Wild Card team can always ruin the party. Keep an eye on the luxury tax thresholds; that's where the real "game" is being played now.
Go back and re-watch the 8th inning of 2016 Game 7 if you want to remember what pure chaos feels like. That's the gold standard. Everything else is just trying to live up to it.