World Series

The World Series is an annual series of games to decide the championship of Major League Baseball (MLB). The series was first played in 1903 and matches the champion of the National League (NL) against the champion of the American League (AL). While some early series went nine games to decide a title, after 1922 the World Series became exclusively a best-of-seven series. From its inception, the Fall Classic, as it is often called, has become a part of American culture, giving birth to iconic heroes, villains, and memorable plays. Among the most notable events in World Series history have been the 1919 Black Sox scandal, Babe Ruth's called shot in 1932, Don Larsen's perfect game in 1956, and the 2016 Chicago Cubs winning their first title in more than a century.

Background

Baseball in the United States developed from English sports transported to the American colonies by the first settlers. Games similar to baseball were played at the time of the American Revolution, but it was not until 1846 that the first game resembling modern baseball took place in Hoboken, New Jersey. The first professional team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings, was founded in 1869, and just two years later, the first professional baseball league was formed. That league, the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players, folded in 1875 and was replaced a year later by the eight-team National League of Professional Baseball Clubs.

In 1882, the American Association was created to compete with the National League. Two years later, the leagues agreed to a three-game exhibition series featuring their respective champions. In what was called the Championship of the United States, the Providence Grays of the National League defeated the New York Metropolitan Club of the American Association. Newspapers of the era dubbed the Grays "World Champions." From 1885 to 1890, the league champions met six more times in exhibition series that ranged from six to fifteen games. In 1891, the American Association suddenly ceased operations and the rivalry came to an end. The National League tried to keep a championship game by experimenting with splitting its season in two or pitting the first and second place teams against each other, but neither idea gained the support of fans.

Overview

In 1901, the American League was formed as a rival to the National League's superiority. From the start, the two leagues bitterly competed for fans and each other's players. The feud lasted two years before the leagues worked out a compromise that resulted in a merger and the first version of the modern World Series. In 1903, the Boston Americans of the supposedly inferior American League won the best-of-nine series over the Pittsburgh Pirates. Despite Boston's victory, some National League owners still saw the American League as weaker, and in 1904, New York Giants owner John Brush refused to allow his team to play the Americans in a championship series. In 1905, the Giants again won the NL championship, but this time Brush reluctantly agreed to let his team play a World Series if certain conditions were met. The series was shortened to seven games and a new system for splitting revenue was implemented.

The best-of-seven format became the standard for the World Series, except for three seasons from 1919 to 1921 when it returned to a best of nine. Baseball endured one of its worst scandals in 1919 when gamblers paid eight members of the heavily favored Chicago White Sox to intentionally lose the World Series. The plot was revealed a year later, and even though the players were acquitted in court, baseball officials banned them from the sport for life. The incident became known as the Black Sox scandal.

In 1923, the New York Yankees won their first World Series title and would go on to build a dynasty, capturing twenty championships over the next forty seasons. One of the Yankees' greatest players, Babe Ruth, became an iconic cultural figure both on and off the field. In the 1932 World Series, he was said to have famously pointed to center field and promptly hit the next pitch over the wall in the exact spot for a home run. Whether Ruth actually did "call" his shot is debated, but his accomplishments have still become the stuff of American legend.

As the Yankees continued to dominate the sport, the team was part of several World Series milestones in the 1940s and 1950s. The 1947 series between the Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers was the first to be shown on television. It was the presence of Dodger second baseman Jackie Robinson, however, that had a more lasting legacy. Robinson made history that year by breaking baseball's color barrier when he became the first Black American to play in the MLB. The Yankees and Dodgers faced each other six times in the Fall Classic from 1947 to 1956, with New York winning five times. In 1956, Yankee pitcher Don Larsen threw a perfect game—retiring all twenty-seven batters—the only time in World Series history that had occurred.

New York was on the losing end of history in 1960 when Bill Mazeroski of the Pittsburgh Pirates hit a home run in the bottom of the ninth inning of game seven to give the underdog Pirates the title. In 1967, the Commissioner's Trophy was introduced as the prize presented to the winning team. Game four of the 1971 series between the Pirates and the Baltimore Orioles was the first night game in World Series history. The trend toward night baseball continued; beginning in 1987, every World Series game was played under the lights. In 1989, the series between the Oakland A's and San Francisco Giants was interrupted by a deadly earthquake that struck the Bay Area. The series was postponed for ten days before resuming. While an earthquake could not stop the World Series, five years later, it fell victim to a players' strike, forcing the cancellation of the 1994 series.

The twenty-first century saw two long-suffering teams finally return to championship glory. In 2004, the Boston Red Sox won their first World Series since 1918. The team had come close several times but always seemed to run into misfortune in the series. The Chicago Cubs never even had the opportunity to find bad luck in the Fall Classic. The team had not won a championship since 1908 and had not been to a World Series since 1945. That changed in October 2016, when Chicago rallied from a 3–1 series deficit to win the championship in seven games.

A notable change in field protocol occurred in 2020. Because of attempts to control the spread of the virus during the COVID-19 pandemic that had begun earlier that year, the series took place at a neutral site for the first time, rather than at the home stadiums of the participating teams. Following the Texas Rangers' first victory in the series in 2023, only five league franchise teams had not claimed the title.

Bibliography

Asinof, Eliot. Eight Men Out: The Black Sox and the 1919 World Series. Owl Books, 2000.

Enders, Eric. The Fall Classic: The Definitive History of the World Series. Sterling, 2007.

Kahn, Roger. The Era, 1947–1957: When the Yankees, the Giants, and the Dodgers Ruled the World. Bison Books, 2002.

Kepner, Tyler. The Grandest Stage: A History of the World Series. Doubleday, 2022.

Kramer, Daniel. "Teams That Have Never Won a World Series." MLB.com, 29 Sept. 2024, www.mlb.com/news/mlb-teams-yet-to-win-world-series-title-c221751514. Accessed 10 Oct. 2024.

"National League of Baseball Is Founded." History, 1 Feb. 2024, www.history.com/this-day-in-history/national-league-of-baseball-is-founded. Accessed 10 Oct. 2024.

"Postseason History: World Series." MLB.com, www.mlb.com/postseason/history/world-series. Accessed 10 Oct. 2024.

Schor, Gill. The World Series: The History and the Moments. BookBaby, 2016.