With the Milwaukee Brewers’ 4-1 win over the Tampa Bay Rays, MLB crowned a first-time champion on Oct. 28.
It’s the fourth time since 2017 that a first-time team won the World Series.
Before 2017, the World Series went 14 seasons without crowning a newcomer as champ, the longest drought among North America’s four major men’s professional leagues since 2000.
The NFL is currently experiencing the longest drought, having gone 12 seasons since the Seattle Seahawks won their first Super Bowl in 2014 (the Philadelphia Eagles won their first Super Bowl in 2018, but had won three NFL championships before that).
The NHL is on a similar trend to MLB by crowning first-time champions; since 2018, four newcomers have won the Stanley Cup. Those champs are the Washington
Capitals, the St. Louis Blues, the Vegas Golden Knights and the Florida Panthers.
The NBA has had two first-time champions since 2017: the Toronto Raptors and the Denver Nuggets.
How long did Milwaukee wait to win the World Series?
Counting the franchise's inaugural season as the Seattle Pilots and this year's title run, the Brewers took 58 seasons to win the World Series.
The franchise had been to the World Series once before – losing in seven games to St. Louis in 1982 – but had to hold out for the second-longest wait among expansion teams to win it. The Texas Rangers, who took 63 seasons to win it all in 2023, had the longest wait.
The Brewers, Rangers, Houston Astros and Washington Nationals are the only four expansion franchises that have taken over half a century to win the Fall Classic.
The shortest span from expansion to title was the Arizona Diamondbacks, who won the World Series in 2001 after their inaugural season in 1998. The then-Florida Marlins also won quickly, taking the 1997 title in their fifth season.
There is also a wrinkle to the Brewers' first-time claim. While it's the first World Series title in franchise history, the city of Milwaukee has won the Fall Classic once before: the Milwaukee Braves (now Atlanta) won the 1957 crown in seven games over the New York Yankees.
For non-expansion franchises, the longest wait from founding to title belongs to the Philadelphia Phillies, who won their first World Series in 1980, their 98th season. That count includes 20 seasons before the inaugural World Series in 1903.
Their 1980 opponent, the Kansas City Royals, was also title-less, making it the first World Series since 1920 in which neither team had won before. It didn't happen again until this year's Brewers-Rays matchup.
MLB teams that have never won the World Series
With Milwaukee off the board, there are now just four ballclubs without a World Series title: the San Diego Padres, the Seattle Mariners, the Colorado Rockies and the Rays.
Notably, the Padres joined the major leagues with the now-Milwaukee franchise in 1969. If San Diego's drought stretches to 2031, it would match the Rangers' 63-season wait.
Had Tampa Bay won this year, it would’ve ended a 29-season wait for the franchise founded in 1998. The Rays have now lost three World Series, having done so previously in 2008 and 2020.
Of those four teams, only the Mariners have never reached the World Series. The Padres did so twice, in 1984 and 1998, while the Rockies did so in 2007.
Among the teams without a World Series ring, Tampa Bay had the best regular season in 2026 with a 98-64 record. San Diego, however, wasn’t far behind at 91-71.
Seattle and Colorado both finished 2026 with losing records.
Methodology: USA TODAY compared first-time champions using lists from MLB, NBA, NHL and the Pro Football Hall of Fame. For details on franchise expansion waits to win the World Series and current droughts, franchise pages on Baseball-Reference were used.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Brewers win first World Series, ending 58-season wait. Who's left?
