The 1995 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1995 season. The 91st edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff played between the National League (NL) champion Atlanta Braves and the American League (AL) champion Cleveland Indians. It was the first World Series after the previous year's Series was canceled due to a players' strike. The Braves upset the heavily favored Indians in six games to capture their third World Series championship in franchise history (along with 1914 in Boston and 1957 in Milwaukee), making them the first team to win in three different cities. This was the first major professional sports championship ever won by an Atlanta-based team. As of , this is the last time the Braves won the World Series at home.

Five of the six games of the series were won by one run, including the clinching sixth game, a 1–0 combined one-hitter by Tom Glavine and Mark Wohlers.

This was the first time since the LCS changed to a best-of-seven format that a winner of a LCS via a sweep had gone on to win the World Series. This has since been repeated in 2019 by the Washington Nationals, in 2022 by the Houston Astros, and in 2025 by the Los Angeles Dodgers.

This World Series, despite being in an odd-numbered year, opened in the NL home because of the omission of the 1994 World Series. Until 2003, the World Series began in the AL home in even-numbered years.

Background

Atlanta Braves

After losing the World Series in 1991 to the Minnesota Twins and in 1992 to the Toronto Blue Jays, the Atlanta Braves were making their third attempt in four years (not counting the 1994 strike) to capture Atlanta's first title.

The Braves overcame some early inconsistency to win their division by 21 games. In the playoffs, which featured a new first round, the Braves overwhelmed the third-year Colorado Rockies, then swept the Cincinnati Reds in the NLCS (spoiling an all-Ohio World Series in the process; notably, prior to their World Series appearance in 1948, the Indians had spoiled an all-Boston World Series by beating the Red Sox in a one-game playoff). The team relied on clutch hitting and its powerful pitching rotation, which was made up of perennial Cy Young Award winner Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, and Steve Avery.

As the NL champion, they opened this World Series at home because there was no 1994 World Series.

Cleveland Indians

After decades of futility, the city of Cleveland finally had a winner in town. The Indians dominated the American League in 1995, winning 100 of their 144 games (their 100–44 record yielded a very high 0.694 winning percentage, which was, at the time, the highest regular season winning percentage in Major League Baseball since 1954, and is, as of 2015, the 12th highest regular season winning percentage in Major League Baseball history since 1900). Furthermore, in just 144 games, they won the AL Central by 30 games, and they performed the difficult feat of leading their league in both team batting average (0.291) and ERA (3.81). Thanks to their hitting and bullpen, this Indians team became known around the league for their ability to come back from many deficits, often in dramatic fashion; of their 100 regular season victories, 48 were come-back victories, 27 came in their last at-bat, eight came by way of "walk off" home runs, and 13 were extra-inning victories (they were 13–0 in extra-inning games). After this dominance of the AL in the regular season, the Indians, in the playoffs, swept the Boston Red Sox in the opening round, then held off Ken Griffey Jr. and the red hot Seattle Mariners in the ALCS, before heading into the Series against the Braves.

The 1995 Cleveland Indians featured a very impressive batting line-up; one that hit for high average, good power, and had good speed. In addition to leading the AL in batting average (0.291), the Indians in 1995 also led the American League in runs scored (840; 5.83 runs per game), home runs (207), and stolen bases (132). Led by speedsters Kenny Lofton and Omar Vizquel, along with Carlos Baerga at the top of the order, the Indians offense was powered in the middle of the order by Albert Belle, Eddie Murray, Manny Ramírez, and Jim Thome; at the bottom of the line-up could be found Paul Sorrento (or Herbert Perry) and Sandy Alomar Jr. (or Tony Peña). Thus, this Indians line-up had six everyday players who finished the season with a batting average of at least .300; and, with Herbert Perry and Tony Peña frequently filling in for Paul Sorrento and Sandy Alomar Jr., respectively, it was not uncommon for the Tribe to field a line-up with as many as eight players who finished the season with a batting average of at least .300. In terms of power, though the '95 season was shortened, nevertheless, the Indians' line-up still featured two players with at least 30 HR, five players with at least 20 HR, and seven with at least 10 HR. While this line-up was filled with star players (four, in fact, were named to the 1995 AL All-Star team, namely, Lofton, Baerga, Belle, and Ramirez), Albert Belle stood out among all of them in 1995. Powered by a very strong second half of the season, Belle, the Indians' clean-up hitter in 1995, finished 1995 with a .317 batting average, 126 RBI, and 50 home runs. Further to be noted is the fact that, in hitting 50 HR and 52 doubles in 1995, Belle became the first Major League player to hit at least 50 home runs and at least 50 doubles in the same season (an accomplishment which, again, is even more remarkable considering that he did this in a shortened, 144-game season).

The Indians also led the 1995 AL in ERA (3.81). While their starting pitching—led by veterans Dennis Martínez and Orel Hershiser—was respectable, it was their bullpen which gave real strength to their pitching staff. Key members of their bullpen staff included veteran right-hander Eric Plunk (6–2, 2.67 ERA), veteran left-hander Paul Assenmacher (6–2, 2.82), the young right-handed set-up man, Julián Tavárez (10–1, 2.44 ERA), and right-handed closer, José Mesa (3–0, 1.12 ERA, 46 SV). Mesa, in his first year as closer, posted a league-leading 46 saves in 1995, and set a then-Major League record of 38 consecutive saves without a blown save. Two of the members of the 1995 Indians' pitching staff—Dennis Martínez (the team's ace) and José Mesa—were named to the 1995 AL All-Star team.

This marked the first time a Cleveland-based team was playing for a major professional sports championship since the Cleveland Browns made the 1965 NFL Championship Game.

Series build-up

It might be noted that this was the first time that a team from Cleveland and one from Atlanta faced each other in the World Series, there were years, prior to the Braves being in Atlanta, in which the Braves faced a Cleveland team for baseball's crown. In 1948, the Boston Braves faced the Cleveland Indians (with the Indians winning that Series in six games). Even before that, in 1892, the Boston Beaneaters, a forerunner of the Braves, were also National League Champions in 1892, and faced the Cleveland Spiders for the championship.Note that this championship was not called the "World Series"; the World Series as we know it today—the championship series between the NL champion and AL champion—was first played in 1903 The Beaneaters beat the Spiders that year to win that baseball championship.

The 1995 World Series was also noted for large-scale protests by Native American activists in response to the controversy surrounding both clubs' usage of Native American-themed nicknames, logos and mascots, as well as the use of the tomahawk chop by Braves fans.

Broadcasting NBC was originally scheduled to televise the entire World Series; however, due to the cancellation of the 1994 World Series, which had been slated for ABC (who last televised a World Series in 1989), coverage ended up being split between NBC and ABC. Game 5 would be the last Major League Baseball game to be telecast by ABC for 25 years. Had the World Series lasted all seven games, the last game would have been televised by ABC. ABC was scheduled to televise up to four wild card games in the 2020 MLB Postseason.

This was the only World Series to be produced under The Baseball Network umbrella (a revenue sharing joint venture between Major League Baseball, ABC and NBC). In July 1995, NBC and ABC announced that they would be pulling out of what was supposed to be a six-year-long venture. NBC would next cover the 1997 (NBC's first entirely since 1988) and 1999 World Series over the course of a five-year-long contract, in which Fox would cover the World Series in even numbered years (1996, 1998 and 2000).

Game 5 would be the last Major League game Al Michaels called as a full-time baseball announcer. After that, Michaels would work NFL games full-time for three networks: ABC, NBC, and Amazon Prime. Michaels did call baseball again in a regular season game between the New York Mets and the San Francisco Giants on MLB Network, partnering with his erstwhile NBC counterpart Bob Costas.

Also during the World Series in 1995, NBC's Hannah Storm not only became the first woman to serve as solo pre-game host of a World Series (CBS' Andrea Joyce co-hosted with Pat O'Brien in 1993) but also became the first woman to preside over a World Series Trophy presentation. Storm was the recipient of a profane outburst from Albert Belle in his team's dugout. Later, Belle was unrepentant: "The Indians wanted me to issue a statement of regret when the fine was announced, but I told them to take it out. I apologize for nothing." John Saunders served as pre-game host for ABC's coverage. Serving as field reporters for the series were Lesley Visser (ABC) and Jim Gray (NBC).

The six games averaged a national Nielsen rating of 19.5 and a share of 33. Through 2016, this remains the highest-rated World Series of the post-strike era.

On the radio side, CBS was the national broadcaster with Vin Scully and Jeff Torborg on the call. Locally, WKNR aired the series in Cleveland with Herb Score and Tom Hamilton announcing, while WSB broadcast the series in Atlanta with Skip Caray, Pete Van Wieren, Don Sutton, and Joe Simpson announcing.

International Country Network Asia Prime Sports Nine Network CBC, CTV, SRC NHK Latin America ESPN MBC Sky Sports

Summary

Matchups

Game 1

Braves ace Greg Maddux pitched a two-hit complete game victory in his first World Series appearance (and just the 15th two-hitter in World Series history).

The Indians scored in the first inning when Kenny Lofton reached on an error, stole second and third, and scored on an RBI groundout by Carlos Baerga. In the bottom of the second, Fred McGriff launched a tape measure home run on his first ever World Series pitch off Indians starter Orel Hershiser to even the score at 1–1. Both starters settled down until the seventh, when Hershiser and the Indians' bullpen walked the first three Braves to open the inning. The Braves would take a 3–1 lead after Luis Polonia hit into a run-scoring force play and Rafael Belliard bunted a perfect suicide squeeze. Lofton scored the Indians another run in the ninth to cut the Braves lead to a single run, (both Indians runs resulted from errors and were thus, unearned) but Baerga lifted a pop fly that third baseman Chipper Jones grabbed near the visiting dugout to end the game.

Game 2