The 1998 Yankees won more games than any other team 
in history.  Therefore, it seems that they are certainly 
one of the best teams of all time.  But how do they compare 
with the 1906 Cubs, the 1954 Indians, or the 1927 Yankees, 
all who had a higher winning percentage?  Or how about the 
1931 Athletics whom Sports Illustrated thought was the best 
team of all time or the 1936 Yankees of Gehrig, Lazzeri,
Crosetti, DiMaggio, and Dickey?

   Of course, no one can really say for sure, but it is fun 
to speculate.  What I have done was to set up a statistical 
comparison, and let the chips fall as they may.  I compared 
the 1906 Cubs with their 76% highest ever winning percentage; 
the 1927 Yankees, whom a lot of people believe to be the best 
ever; the 1931 Philadelphia Athletics; the 1936 Yankees; the 
1954 Cleveland Indians with their 72% winning percentage; and 
the 1998 Yankees with their 70% winning percentage.  Also 
included where the 1975 Cincinnati Reds, who won 108 games; 
the 1953 Dodgers, who had many Hall-of-Fame players; and the 
1953 Yankees, who had just completed winning a record five 
straight World Series. 

   I basically compared how these teams did against the best 
teams in their league in that particular year on a percentage 
basis.  For example, the 1998 Yankees won 24% more games than 
the team with the second best record. They scored the most 
runs in the league, which was 3% more than that scored by the 
second best run producing team.  And they held their opponents 
to the leagues' lowest number of runs, which was 10% less than 
that scored against the second least scored upon team.  If you 
add these three numbers, it gives the Yankees a overall rating 
of 37. 

   This rating system applied to the 1975 Reds gives them 
numbers of 17%, 14%, and -10%.  They were only third best in 
not allowing runs to be scored against them, having 10% more 
runs scored against them than against the least scored upon 
team.  The Red's overall rating was 21.

   The following is the listing of these nine teams with 
their overall scores:

Team                   Score

Yankees of 1927         57
Cubs of 1906            57
Yankees of 1936         43
Yankees of 1998         37
Yankees of 1953         21
Dodgers of 1953         21
Reds of 1975            21
Indians of 1954          4
Athletics of 1931        3

   I put the Yankees ahead of the Cubs because I really believe 
they were the best team of all time.  I put the 1953 Yankees 
ahead of the Dodgers and Reds, because like the first four teams 
on the list, they were first in their league in both scoring the 
most runs and allowing the least.  They also had won five 
straight World Series. 

   The 1931 Athletics were rated low because they were only 
third in the league in scoring runs, a huge 20% less than the 
Yankees.

   Are the 1998 Yankees the fourth best team of all time?  I 
don't know, but they were very, very good. They probably didn't 
have the really great players that most of the teams on this 
list had, but their balance was second to none.

        Don Sibrel