List of National League pennant winners

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The Philadelphia Phillies won their second consecutive pennant in 2009 and lost to the San Francisco Giants in the 2010 NLCS.
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The National League pennant winner of a given Major League Baseball season is the team that wins the championship—the pennant—of MLB's National League (NL). This team receives the Warren C. Giles Trophy and the right to play in the World Series against the champion of the American League (AL). The current NL pennant winners are the Los Angeles Dodgers, who beat out the New York Mets to win the NL pennant in October 2024.

The trophy is named for Warren Giles, the league president from 1951 to 1969, and is presented immediately after each NL Championship Series (NLCS) by Warren's son Bill Giles, the honorary league president and former owner of the Philadelphia Phillies.[1]

From 1876 through 1968, the pennant was awarded to the team with the best regular-season record. Beginning in 1969, the league was divided into East and West divisions, with the champions of each playing for the pennant in the League Championship Series (NLCS). Since 1995, there have been three divisions and a two-round playoff bracket which begins with two Division Series (NLDS).

The pennant has been awarded every year since 1876, except for 1994, when a players' strike forced the cancellation of the postseason.[2][3] Until 1969, the pennant was presented to the team with the best win–loss record at the end of the season.[4] In 1969, the league split into two divisions,[5] and the teams with the best records in each division played one another in the NLCS to determine the pennant winner. The format of the NLCS was changed from a best-of-five to a best-of-seven format for the 1985 postseason.[6] In 1995, an additional playoff series was added when MLB restructured the two divisions in each league into three.[7] As of 2010, the winners of the Eastern, Central, and Western Divisions, as well as one wild card team, play in the NL Division Series, a best-of-five playoff to determine the opponents who will play for the pennant.[8]

By pennants, the Los Angeles Dodgers (formerly the Brooklyn Dodgers; 25 pennants, 32 playoff appearances)[9] are the winningest team in NL history. The San Francisco Giants (formerly the New York Giants; 23 pennants, 27 playoff appearances)[10] are in second place, with the St. Louis Cardinals (19 pennants and 28 playoff appearances),[11] in third place, followed by the Atlanta Braves (18 pennants and 23 postseason appearances between their three home cities of Atlanta, Milwaukee, and Boston)[12] in fourth place and the Chicago Cubs (17 pennants and 20 playoff appearances as the Cubs and White Stockings) in fifth.[13] The Philadelphia Phillies were NL champions in back-to-back seasons in 2008 and 2009, becoming the first NL team to do so since the Braves in 1995 and 1996.[14] The Dodgers were also league champions in back-to-back seasons in 2017 and 2018. The modern World Series began in 1903, when the National League recognized the upstart American League, founded in 1901. There was an earlier "World's Championship Series" played between the pennant winners of the NL and the American Association 1884–1890; from 1894 to 1897 the NL's first- and second-place teams played a postseason series for the Temple Cup, which was considered to be the league championship. As of 2021, the Dodgers have the most modern-era World Series appearances at 21, followed by the San Francisco Giants with 20.

The team with the best record to win the NL pennant was the 1906 Cubs, who won 116 of 152 games during that season[15] and finished 20 games ahead of the New York Giants.[16] The best record by a pennant winner in the Championship Series era is 108–54, which was achieved by the Cincinnati Reds in 1975[17] and the New York Mets in 1986;[18] both of these teams went on to win the World Series.[2]

NL champions have gone on to win the World Series 51 times, most recently in 2021.[2] Pennant winners have also won the Temple Cup and the Chronicle-Telegraph Cup, two pre-World Series league championships, although second-place teams won three of the four Temple Cup meetings.[19][20] The largest margin of victory for a pennant winner, before the league split into two divisions in 1969, is 27+1⁄2 games; the Pittsburgh Pirates led the Brooklyn Superbas (now the Dodgers) by that margin on the final day of the 1902 season.[21]

The only currently existing National League franchise to have never won an NL pennant are the Milwaukee Brewers; however, they did win a pennant during their time in the American League.[22]

  1. ^ Jensen, Mike (October 16, 2008). "'Fantastic feeling' for Bill Giles". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Archived from the original on October 19, 2008. Retrieved August 20, 2009.
  2. ^ a b c "Playoff and World Series Stats and Results". Baseball-Reference.com. Archived from the original on January 9, 2010. Retrieved January 25, 2010.
  3. ^ "Season interrupted". Sports Illustrated. August 26, 2002. Archived from the original on June 1, 2009. Retrieved January 2, 2010.
  4. ^ Gillette, Gary; Gammons, Peter (2007). The ESPN Baseball Encyclopedia. Palmer, Pete. Sterling. p. 1723. ISBN 978-1-4027-4771-7.
  5. ^ Koppett, Leonard; Koppett, Dave (2004). Koppett's concise history of major league baseball. Carroll & Graf. p. 300. ISBN 0-7867-1286-4.
  6. ^ "League Championship Series Results". Baseball Digest. Vol. 60, no. 10. Lakeside. October 2001. p. 74. ISSN 0005-609X.[permanent dead link‍]
  7. ^ "Pirates agree to move to new division". Ocala Star-Banner. September 16, 1993. Retrieved October 15, 2009.
  8. ^ Formosa, Dan; Hamburger, Paul (2006). Baseball field guide: an in-depth illustrated guide to the complete rules of baseball. Thunder's Mouth Press. pp. 24–25. ISBN 1-56025-700-8.
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference LAD was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference SFG was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference STL was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ Cite error: The named reference ATL was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference CHC was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ Nightengale, Bob (October 27, 2009). "Phillies hoping for a rare back-to-back Series title". USA Today. Archived from the original on October 30, 2009. Retrieved January 26, 2010.
  15. ^ "1906 Chicago Cubs Batting, Pitching, & Fielding Statistics". Baseball-Reference.com. Archived from the original on 3 April 2009. Retrieved 26 January 2010.
  16. ^ "1906 New York Giants Batting, Pitching, & Fielding Statistics". Baseball-Reference.com. Archived from the original on 25 May 2009. Retrieved 26 January 2010.
  17. ^ "1975 Cincinnati Reds Batting, Pitching, & Fielding Statistics". Baseball-Reference.com. Archived from the original on 17 June 2022. Retrieved 26 January 2010.
  18. ^ "1986 New York Mets Batting, Pitching, & Fielding Statistics". Baseball-Reference.com. Archived from the original on 12 July 2022. Retrieved 26 January 2010.
  19. ^ Knowles, Richard George; Morton, Richard (1896). Baseball. George Routledge and Sons. p. 93.
  20. ^ Good roads: devoted to the construction and maintenance of roads and streets. Vol. 31. Burton Publishing Company. 1900. p. 15.
  21. ^ "National League". Baseball Digest. Vol. 40, no. 1. Lakeside. January 1981. p. 14. ISSN 0005-609X.[permanent dead link‍]
  22. ^ "World Series Club History". Baseball Almanac. Archived from the original on September 19, 2011. Retrieved August 6, 2013.