The World Series ring is an award given to the individual players and staff of the winning team in the Fall Classic each season. It goes without saying that winning the World Series is the ultimate goal for each team each year, so competition is fierce.

Being able to sport a World Series ring on your finger, then, is the ultimate symbol of team success on the baseball diamond.

The question at hand, then, is …

Who Gets the Ring?

First and foremost, you have to win the World Series for you to stand a chance of getting that coveted ring. For the players who participated in the victory, it goes without saying that each one of them will get a ring. However, who else qualifies?

Well, there are no hard and fast rules for who else gets the World Series rings. The decision here lies with the ownership and the organization of the winning team. Generally speaking, though, the following people stand a chance of getting the ring should their team win the World Series:

  • Members of the front office (general manager, etc.)
  • Team medical staff
  • Interns (sometimes)
  • Local broadcast professionals (team announcers, color commentators, etc.)
  • Scouts
  • Coaches
  • Groundskeepers
  • Other staffers who work with the team day-to-day throughout the seasn

Are there Special Cases?

Yes, there are some special cases where a person might not be a member of the winning team but still gets the World Series Ring. The most common cases include:

1. Traded/Released Players

Any player who participated in the winning team’s journey to securing a World Series title is eligible to get a ring even if the player has been sold or released already. The perfect example of this case is the Dan Uggla’s case. In 2014, he was cut by The Giants after a dismal early performance. The Giants went on to win the series and Uggla got a ring.

2. Umpires

Even though they don’t get the flashy big rocks that the winning team gets, umpires get modest rings for their role in the World Series. A popular umpire, Joe West, has six rings.

3. Steve Bartman

This has to be the most special case: in 2016, Steve Bartman was awarded a World Series ring. Bartman was famously a scapegoat for the franchise’s troubles and was rewarded with the ring after the Chicago Cubs won their first World Series in a long while.

4. The Fans

The team that wins the World Series sometimes gives replica rings to their ardent fans. In other cases, fans can get replica rings for promotional purposes.

5. The Losers

The losing team usually gets a league championship ring for their efforts. Even though the rings might not be as prestigious as the World Series rings, they still serve as a consolation for the team that lost.

Conclusion

World Series rings are given to the Major League Baseball team that wins the World Series. However, the staff from the winning team, and others with ties to the club, can also get the rings. Over time, there have been some special cases where someone has been awarded with the World Series ring even though he was not a member of the winning team under any capacity.

In general, then, there are no hard and fast rules as to who gets the World Series rings — but the more the merrier, we say!

You can find more interesting facts about baseball right here.