Has A Baseball Player Ever Played In The World Series For Two Different Teams?
The World Series is the pinnacle of Major League Baseball greatness, and oftentimes it seems hard enough to win just one of these league championships as a professional baseball player. But, among those who have won multiple World Series, have any players won as part of two different teams? As it turns out, yes, many Major League Baseball players have played in and even won the World Series on two different teams. Some players have even won a World Series with three different teams.
Who Has Won a World Series With Three Different Teams?
Winning a World Series with two different teams may seem implausible, but quite a few professional baseball players have actually accomplished this feat. A bit rarer is to win the World Series with more than two teams, but still, players have even accomplished this. Herb Pennock, for example, played in the MLB from 1912 to 1934. During this stint, he managed seven World Series rings, split between the Philadelphia Athletics, Boston Red Sox, and New York Yankees. Stuffy McInnis is another example of one of these players. He collected five total World Series, three with the Philadelphia Athletics (1911, 1913, 1914), one with the Boston Red Sox (1918), and a final championship with the Pittsburgh Pirates (1925).
Babe Ruth and Rivaling Teams
Perhaps one of the more interesting cases of winning a World Series with more than one team is the case of Babe Ruth, who won championships on two of the biggest rival teams in baseball: the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. In 1915, 1916, and 1918, Babe Ruth and the Boston Red Sox captured the World Series title. For the second of these two titles, Babe Ruth took the mound, and he pitched impressive ERAs of 0.64 and 1.06, respectively.
Later in his career, Babe Ruth made the controversial move to play for the Red Sox’s notorious rival, the New York Yankees. While in New York, Ruth was a major player in seven more World Series wins. The Yankees won it all in 1921, 1922, 1923, 1926, 1927, 1928, and 1932. The 1926 victory was debatably Ruth’s most impressive World Series, as he scored six hits, hit four home runs, and batted in five RBIs.
Back-to-Back World Series
More unusual than playing for two different teams in the World Series is winning a World Series in back-to-back years on two different teams. Only nine players have managed this in all of Major League Baseball history. These nine players are Joc Pederson, Ben Zobrist, Jake Peavy, Ryan Theriot, Jack Morris, Don Gullet, Bill Skowron, Clem Labine, and Allie Clark.
The most recent player to accomplish this unusual statistic is Joc Pederson. In 2020, Pederson was part of the first Los Angeles Dodgers team to win a World Series since 1988, and his eight RBIs in the series helped them get there. The next year, Pederson moved to the Atlanta Braves, hitting critical home runs during the National League Division Series and helping them conquer a Championship in 2021.