Was the 1964 World Series the greatest ever?

Allen Barra writes in American Heritage that the 1964 World Series, with pitted the St. Louis Cardinals vs. the New York Yankees, was the greatest ever. Actually, he doesn't make a terrific case for the Series itself being "great" (although it did go seven games and featured Bob Gibson, Curt Flood, Lou Brock, Mickey Mantle, and Whitey Ford, to name just a few). In a package I co-wrote for ESPN.com, we ranked the 1964 Series the 13th best in the first 100 years.

He does argue, also unconvincingly, that the 1964 World Series was "great" because many of those who participated would later be both outspoken and prolific:

The 1964 Yankees and Cardinals were a microcosm of the changes that were whirling in professional sports. Bouton and Flood, most notably, exemplified the new breed of articulate professional athletes who were skeptical of authority and unafraid to challenge traditions. In truth, it seems that nearly every member of the two teams had something to say. Bouton, Berra, Mantle, Ford, Kubek, Pepitone, Flood, McCarver, Gibson, and Uecker are credited with 22 books among them, which makes them the writingest teams ever to play in the World Series. Just as the year changed the nation, so its World Series changed American sports.

This is a tremendous logical leap. Some of the players would later be radically (for sports) outspoken (and that only applies to Bouton and Flood). Others wrote many books -- not any surprise, considering some were Hall of Famers, others broadcasters, and half of them Yankees. But I'll be darned if I can recall Berra, Mantle, Ford, Kubek, Pepitone, or McCarver writing anything that created anything more than a brief and minor ripple in baseball, much less sports in general. Berra's funny and his words are memorable for that reason, and have had some larger cultural impact, in a Jerry Seinfeld kind of way.

1964 World Series, cultural watershed? Not even close. Great series? Yes. But not the greatest by any stretch.