For as much pageantry and pride there is for fans who watch their teams win the pennant, ultimately all but two fanbases end each season shorter than they would've hoped. Some franchises are seemingly World Series regulars, while others -- for a variety of reasons -- have had lengthy stretches between appearances in the Fall Classic.
The Brewers are among the fanbases that had to wait the longest to see their club make it back to the game's biggest stage, dating back to their first World Series appearance in 1982. After waiting 43 years, the Brewers are back in the Fall Classic in 2026 after they took down the reigning two-time World Series champion Dodgers.
With this in mind, here are the longest stretches without a World Series appearance since the first Fall Classic in 1903.
1. Cubs: 71 years (1945-2016)
Billy goats, black cats, Gatorade gloves and Steve Bartman. North Siders had no shortage of reasons to believe their team was cursed throughout the majority of the 20th century, which saw the Cubs last win it all in 1908. Chicago made it back to the Series, and lost, seven more times between then and 1945, when they fell to the Tigers in a seven-game series that spawned the famous Curse of the Billy Goat. Then the drought really began, as the Cubs notably blew commanding leads in both the '84 and 2003 National League Championship Series before the tides finally turned behind stars Jon Lester, Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo -- and an almighty Game 7 rain delay -- in 2016.
2. Nationals: 50 years (1969-2019)
The Montreal Expos went 52-110 in their inaugural season in 1969, which perhaps was a harbinger of tough times to come. They reached the NLCS just once (in 1981) before moving to Washington in 2005 to become the Nationals, and success didn’t exactly happen overnight. The Nats lost in the NLDS four times between 2012 and 2017 before reaching -- and winning -- the World Series against the Astros in 2019.
3-T. Mariners: 49 years (1977-present)
Although they’ve come close a few times, the Mariners remain the only franchise to never have played in a World Series. Seattle made its debut as an expansion club in 1977 and lost in the ALCS in 1995, 2000 and 2001, the last of those after racking up an MLB-record-tying 116 wins during the regular season. The Mariners came just a few innings short of reaching the Fall Classic in 2025, losing Game 7 of the ALCS to the Blue Jays on the heels of a seventh-inning George Springer home run.
3-T. Rangers: 49 years (1961-2010)
Initially the Washington Senators before moving to Texas ahead of the 1972 season, the Rangers struggled to make headway in the American League. They finished second in the AL West a number of times, and when they finally won their first division title in 1996, they fell to the Yankees in the ALDS. The same fate befell Texas in 1998 and ’99. In 2010, though, the Rangers beat the Rays in five games in the ALDS and exorcised some demons by taking down the Yanks in six in the ALCS to win the pennant. Their run fell short against the Giants in the World Series, though, and they suffered some serious heartbreak the following year in the Fall Classic against the Cardinals. Texas won its first World Series title in 2023.
5. Pirates: 47 years (1979-present)
Ever since Willie Stargell and Co. helped the Pirates take down the Orioles in a seven-game Fall Classic in 1979, there hasn’t been much October baseball in Pittsburgh. Sure, the Bucs made the NLCS for three straight years from 1990-92 -- losing to the Reds once and the Braves twice -- but they haven’t made it back to that round since. With Paul Skenes, Konnor Griffin and a stacked farm system, Pittsburgh will head into 2027 with aspirations of ending its World Series drought soon.
6. White Sox: 46 years (1959-2005)
Many South Siders believed their team suffered from a curse -- that of the scandalous Black Sox in 1919 -- but there was plenty of bad baseball mixed in, too. After breaking a 40-year pennant drought (which you can read about further down on this list) to reach the 1959 World Series, the White Sox had to wait even longer to get back to the Fall Classic. They lost in the ALCS in 1983 and 1993 and in the ALDS in 2000 before sweeping the Astros in the ’05 Series.
7-T. Brewers: 43 years (1982-2026)
The Brewers set a franchise record and led the Majors with 97 wins in 2025. A year later, they broke that record by once again leading the Majors with 103 wins. Milwaukee blitzed its way to the Fall Classic, beating the Padres in four games in the NLDS before sweeping the Dodgers in the NLCS. It had to have felt extra sweet, given that those same Dodgers swept the Brewers in the '25 NLCS en route to the World Series title. Milwaukee's 2026 season featured massive breakouts from the likes of Jacob Misiorowski and a complete team effort to return to the World Series.
7-T. Orioles: 43 years (1983-present)
The Orioles are one of two teams, along with the White Sox, to crack this list twice, a rare form of baseball-induced misery. Baltimore won the AL pennant six times in an 18-year span beginning in 1966 – when Hall of Famer Frank Robinson powered the O’s to a championship – and ending in 1983, when the Cal Ripken Jr.-led squad won it all. Things have not been as rosy since, with just seven playoff appearances in a 43-year stretch. The Orioles have won a total of three games in three separate trips to the ALCS in 1996, 1997 and 2014.
7-T. Astros: 43 years (1962-2005)
Houston’s initial World Series appearance didn’t exactly go as planned -- the Astros were unceremoniously swept by the White Sox -- but it was still a franchise first. Founded in 1962 as the Colt .45s, the club posted a record over .500 just twice in its first 17 seasons. A host of defeats in the NLDS and NLCS followed before Houston got over the hump in ’05 -- yes, even after Albert Pujols’ famous NLCS Game 5 homer off Brad Lidge. Recently, the Astros have been a fixture in the Fall Classic, winning the 2017 and ’22 World Series and claiming the AL pennant in 2019 and ’21.
10-T. Angels: 41 years (1961-2002)
The 2002 season was a magical one for the Angels, perhaps fitting given that this coincided with the Disney ownership of the club. They had only made the playoffs three times in their first 40 seasons (1979, 1982 and '86), then romped to a 99-win campaign in 2002 to seize the AL Wild Card spot. The Angels proceeded to win their first ever playoff series in the ALDS vs. the Yankees, took down the Twins in the ALCS and won an epic seven-game World Series against the Giants, culminating in a Game 7 win in front of Angels fans in Anaheim to win the franchise’s first title in its 41st year of existence.
10-T. Guardians: 41 years (1954-1995)
Behind the likes of shortstop Lou Boudreau, outfielder Larry Doby, and pitchers Bob Lemon and Bob Feller, the 1948 Indians soared to 97 wins and a championship. The club remained a force in the years to come, finishing in the top two in the AL six more times from '49-'56, including 111 victories and a pennant in '54 -- when the New York Giants swept the Tribe in the World Series.
But there were rough times in Cleveland after that. Between 1960-93, Cleveland finished higher than fourth just once (third in '68). Finally, the franchise struck gold again in the mid-90s behind a terrific core of position players, including Albert Belle, Manny Ramirez, Jim Thome and Omar Vizquel. After coming in second in the new AL Central division in the 1994 strike year, Cleveland stormed to 100 wins in '95 before eventually falling to the Braves in the Fall Classic.
10-T. Orioles: 41 years (1903-1944)
Of the original 16 Modern Era clubs, the Orioles (then the St. Louis Browns) were the last to make a trip to the World Series by a pretty wide margin -- No. 15, the then-crosstown Cardinals, won their first pennant in 1926. The 1944 Browns, capitalizing on the league-wide wartime lull, made the playoffs for the first time with a roster of largely anonymous players, including 23-year-old shortstop Vern Stephens, who led the AL with 109 RBIs.
Unfortunately, confronted with the Cardinals -- with whom they shared a stadium at the time -- in the World Series, they lost in six games, kicking off another long postseason layoff. It was another 22 years before the club made the playoffs again, but that time, at least, the trip was more fruitful -- the 1966 season kicked off a six-season stint over which they appeared in four Fall Classics and won two of them (in '66 and '70).
10-T. Athletics: 41 years (1931-72)
Hall of Fame manager Connie Mack famously built two separate dynasties in Philadelphia, and then sold many of each dynasty's star players in the years following. After losing their third straight World Series appearance to the Cardinals in seven games in 1931, the A's fell to last place within a span of four years and largely stayed in the second division through the next several decades.
A move to Kansas City in 1955 did little to change the fortunes of the A's, who were largely viewed as a quasi-farm team for the mighty Yankees throughout the decade. But eccentric owner Charlie Finley bought the club in '60 and, slowly, turned the club around. The A's drafted Reggie Jackson with the second overall pick in '66, moved west to Oakland in '68 and became the second franchise to win three straight World Series by the end of '74.
14. White Sox: 40 years (1919-1959)
The White Sox finished as high as second place just once between 1920 and '56, before Hall of Fame manager Al Lopez began turning the “Go Go Sox” into form. Fellow Hall of Famers Nellie Fox, Luis Aparicio, Early Wynn and Billy Pierce captured the AL pennant for Chicago in 1959 but could not defeat the Dodgers in the World Series.