2001 Press Release: Best Teams

H. H. Hollingsworth
692 S. Sheraton Drive
Akron, Ohio 44319
330 644 2421

PRESS RELEASE: February 15, 2001

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Two Teams Added to Baseball's Top 10 During Last Six Years

Two teams have been added to the Ten Best Baseball Teams of All Time since 1993, according to a new study by Harry H. Hollingsworth, Akron (Ohio) sports statistician.

They are the 1998 New York Yankees, third best of all time, and the 1995 Cleveland Indians, eighth best.

Hollingsworth has updated the ratings that were in his book, The Best and Worst Baseball Teams of All Time (SPI Books, New York City: 1994) using a slightly modified formula for ranking the teams. The new results are found in a just-published monograph, The Best Baseball Teams of All Time.

As in his 1994 book, the top two teams continue to be the 1927 New York Yankees and the 1939 Yankees. That makes the top three teams all Yankee teams and four of the Top 10.

In the monograph, all 200 pennant winners since 1901 are ranked. Also, how other published studies since 1975 ranked the Top 10 is shown.

Here are the Hollingsworth's Top 10:

1 1927 New York Yankees
2 1939 New York Yankees
3 1998 New York Yankees
4 1906 Chicago Cubs
5 1944 St. Louis Cardinals
6 1902 Pittsburgh Pirates
7 1929 Philadelphia Athletics
8 1995 Cleveland Indians
9 1954 Cleveland Indians
10 1936 New York Yankees

The teams were scored by how they ranked in each of 10 factors used by Hollingsworth:

The general measures are: Percentage of Games Won, Games Ahead of the Second Place team in the team's league or division, the Ratio of Runs Scored by the team to the Runs scored by its Opponents and World Series Net (games won minus games lost in the World Series).

Offensive Measures are: Batting Average, Net On Base Percentage, Net Slugging Average and Net Home Runs.

Defensive Measures are: Earned Run Average and Net Earned Run Average.

The "Net" factors are how much better the team did than the average team in its league.

Hollingsworth was a manager in sales forecasting and management research at the Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. during a 32- year career. He has been rating college football and NFL teams since 1982 and has provided ratings and picks to the New York Post for the last 11 years. His ratings and picks have also appeared in other newspapers.

The book and the monograph are available from Hollingsworth at 692 S. Sheraton Dr., Akron, Ohio 44319. Price of the book is $5 postpaid; the monograph is $3 postpaid.

Hollingsworth held management positions in marketing research, sales forecasting and long range planning during a 32-year career with the Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. He has published ratings of college and NFL teams since 1982 that are being run by the New York Post, and have been run by the Akron Beacon Journal, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the New York Daily News.

His book, The Best and Worst Baseball Teams of All Time, is described in a Web Page that may be accessed by typing the keywords "best baseball teams" in the Yahoo search engine and may be purchased through the online internet bookstore, Amazon.com.