Read the arguments from Sports Geek and Loyal Homer about which was the best team of the last decade to win a World Series.
Pitching wins championships. Following that logic, it stands to reason that the World Series championship team with the best pitching would make for the best World Series championship team. Of the past decade, no team to win a World Series had better pitching than the 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks.
As proof of that statement I offer two names – Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling. These two pitchers – who were two of the most dominant on the mound over the past 20 years – joined forces during the 2000 season and became the most devastating 1-2 punch I have ever seen in a pitching rotation. During the 2001 regular season, Schilling and Johnson combined for a record of 43-12, with Johnson winning 21 games and Schilling winning 22.
Once the duo entered the postseason they continued their almost unbeatable performance. Throughout the postseason these two mound monsters pitched a record of 9-1. Not bad when you consider the fact that 11 wins is all that it takes to win the entire postseason!
Schilling and Johnson, who were both named to the National League All-Star roster, presented a tandem that simply could not be touched. During the 2001 postseason they pitched a total of 89.2 innings, giving up only 13 runs. They threw a combined 103 strikeouts (45 of which came in the World Series alone), and gave up only 14 walks. They dominated from their first pitch to their last.
While having Johnson and Schilling is enough to make any team a contender for the World Series, pitching is only half of the game. A championship team still needs to produce runs on offense, and the Diamondbacks had one of Major League Baseball’s biggest hitters of the year in outfielder Luis Gonzalez and his 57 home runs and 142 RBI. Those totals, along with 36 doubles and an overall batting average of .325, earned Gonzalez the only Silver Slugger award of his career that season, in addition to being named an All-Star along with teammates Schilling and Johnson. With Gonzalez, fellow outfielder Reggie Sanders contributed another 33 homers and 90 RBI.
Two other notable names on the Diamondbacks roster were former Chicago Cubs All-Star and Gold Glove first baseman Mark Grace and infielder Craig Counsell, who won the 2001 NLCS MVP award for his performance against the Atlanta Braves.
The 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks were the product of a perfect storm. Thanks to the combination of the league’s two best pitchers, a career season from one of its sluggers, and the leadership and consistency of several key veteran players, the Diamondbacks went on to win its first World Series in franchise history and become the best World Series Championship team of the decade!
