MLB Showdown Obsession

Life is hard for a defending champion. No matter how you got there last year, you are the toast of the town and the last team standing as you hold your championship trophy high...but now there's no escaping the fate for next year. Everyone is gunning for you, and you have the biggest of targets on your back. And the only question anyone has for you next year is the timeless: think you can repeat? And if the pressure of defending a championship wasn't bad enough, try defending a championship after having an all-time great season. After sweeping their way to the title in '27, Miller Huggins and the Murderers Row Yankees were for the most part back in 1928. On the American League side, the only hope of resistance was coming from the Philadelphia Athletics, and while they put up quite a fight and the Yankees did regress from their legendary win total, the 101-53 record was sufficient enough to claim their third straight AL flag. In the World Series, the last hope left to stop ...

 No Old-Timers Committee in 1952, so the only hope for inductions were in the BBWAA vote, which thankfully submitted two men for enshrinement. Paul "Big Poison" Waner wasn't the only member of his family on the ballot in 1952. His brother Lloyd "Little Poison" Waner only received once vote and would go on to need the help of the Veterans Committee to follow his brother into the Hall of Fame.

 1950 sucked. No one got the needed amount of votes to receive enshrinement, the Old-Timers Committee didn't meet and they didn't allow any run-off election for any second look vote. No one got into the Hall of Fame. It was clear that easy options were no longer on the table, but 1951 was a bounce back year where the BBWAA gave the green light to two men. Mel Ott and Jimmie Foxx (the second X is for eXtreme) joined the fraternity.