World Series

The Commissioner's Trophy

The World Series has been the annual championship series of the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada since 1903, concluding the postseason of Major League Baseball. Since the Series takes place in October, sportswriters many years ago dubbed the event the Fall Classic; it is also sometimes known as the October Classic or simply The Series. It is played between the League Championship Series winning clubs from MLB's two circuits, the American and National Leagues. The World Series has been played every year since 1903 with the exception of 1904 (boycott) and 1994 (player strike). Though professional baseball has employed various championship formulas since the 1860s, the term "World Series" is usually understood to refer exclusively to the modern World Series.

Though the name "World Series" might bring to mind an intercontinental championship, it is confined within Major League Baseball's American and National Leagues. Since those two leagues together generally attract the top talent from around the world, the World Series is thought of among fans and sports writers as a de facto world championship.

The winner of World Series championship is determined through a best-of-seven playoff except for 1903, 1919, 1920, and 1921, when the winner was determined through a best-of-nine playoff. The winning team is awarded the Commissioner's Trophy and the team presents its players and executives individual World Series championship rings. The Series-winning club also receives a larger proportion of the gate receipts from the series.

The New York Yankees of the American League have played in 40 of the 105 World Series and have won 27 World Series championships, more than any other Major League franchise. From the National League, the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers have participated the most in the Series with 18 appearances (9 each in Brooklyn and Los Angeles), and have won the Series 6 times (once as Brooklyn, five times as Los Angeles). The St. Louis Cardinals have represented the National League 17 times and have won 10 championships, which is the second most of any Major League Team.^[1] Presently, the Chicago Cubs have played the most seasons without winning the World Series, with their last championship coming in 1908.^[2]

Precursors to the modern World Series (1857–1902)

The original World Series

Until the formation of the American Association in 1882 as a second major league, the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players (1871–75) and then the National League (founded 1876) represented the top level of organized baseball in the United States. All championships went to whoever had the best record at the end of the season, without a postseason series being played. Starting in 1884 and going through 1890, the National League and the American Association faced each other in a series of games at the end of the season to determine an overall champion. These matchups were disorganized in comparison to the modern Series: games played ranged from as few as three in 1884 to a high of 15 in 1887 (Detroit beat St. Louis 10 games to 5), and both the 1885 and 1890 Series ended in ties, each team having won three games with one tie game.^[2]

The series were promoted and referred to as "The Championship of the United States",^[3][4] "World's Championship Series", or "World's Series" for short.

The 19th-century competitions are, however, not officially recognized as part of World Series history by Major League Baseball, as the organization considers 19th-century baseball to be a prologue to the modern baseball era.^[5] Until about 1960, some sources treated the 19th-century Series on an equal basis with the post-19th-century series.^[6] After about 1930, however, many authorities list the start of the World Series in 1903 and discuss the earlier contests separately.^[7] (For example, the 1929 World Almanac and Book of Facts lists "Baseball's World Championships 1884-1928" in a single table,^[8] but the 1943 edition lists "Baseball World Championships–1903-1942".^[9])

1892–1900: "The Monopoly Years"

Following the collapse of the American Association after the 1891 season, four of its clubs were admitted to the National League, which was again the only major league. The league championship was awarded in 1892 by a playoff between half-season champions. This scheme was abandoned after one season.^[10] Beginning in 1893 — and continuing until divisional play was introduced in 1969 — the pennant was awarded to the first-place club in the standings at the end of the season. For four seasons, 1894–97, the league champions played the runners-up in the post season championship series called the Temple Cup.^[11][12] A second attempt at this format was the Chronicle-Telegraph Cup series, which was played only once, in 1900.^[13]

In 1901, the American League was formed as a second major league. No championship series were played in 1901 or 1902 as the National and American Leagues fought each other for business supremacy.

Modern World Series (1903–present)

Crowd outside Huntington Avenue Grounds before a game during the 1903 World Series

First attempt

After two years of bitter competition and player raiding (in 1902, the AL and NL champions even went so far as to challenge each other to a tournament in football after the end of the baseball season), the National and American Leagues made peace and, as part of the accord, several pairs of teams squared off for interleague exhibition games after the 1903 season. These series were arranged by the participating clubs, as the 1880s World's Series matches had been. One of them matched the two pennant winners, Pittsburgh Pirates of the NL and the Boston Americans (later known as the Red Sox) of the AL; that one is known as the 1903 World Series. It had been arranged well in advance by the two owners, as both teams were league leaders by large margins.^[14] Boston upset Pittsburgh by 5 games to 3, winning with pitching depth behind Cy Young and Bill Dinneen and with the support of the band of Royal Rooters. The Series brought much civic pride to Boston and proved the new American League could beat the Nationals.

Boycott of 1904

The 1904 Series, if it had been held, would have been between the AL's Boston Americans (Boston Red Sox) and the NL's New York Giants (now the San Francisco Giants). At that point there was no governing body for the World Series nor any requirement that a Series be played. Thus the Giants' owner, John T. Brush, refused to allow his team to participate in such an event, citing the "inferiority" of the upstart American League. John McGraw, the Giants' manager, even went so far as to say that his Giants were already "world champions" since they were the champions of the "only real major league". At the time of the announcement, their new cross-town rivals, the New York Highlanders (now the NY Yankees), were leading the AL, and the prospect of facing the Highlanders did not please Giants management. Boston won on the last day of the season, and the leagues had previously agreed to hold a World's Championship Series in 1904, but it was not binding, and Brush stuck to his original decision. In addition to political reasons, Brush also factually cited the lack of rules under which money would be split, where games would be played, and how they would be operated and staffed.

During the winter of 1904–05, however, feeling the sting of press criticism, Brush had a change of heart and proposed what came to be known as the "Brush Rules," under which the series were played subsequently. One rule was that player shares would come from a portion of the gate receipts for the first four games only. This was to discourage teams from "fixing" early games in order to prolong the series and make more money. Receipts for later games would be split among the two clubs and the National Commission, the governing body for the sport, which was able to cover much of its annual operating expense from World Series revenue. Most importantly, the now-official and compulsory World's Series matches were operated strictly by the National Commission itself, not by the participating clubs.

With the new rules in place and the National Commission in control, McGraw's Giants decided to show up for the 1905 Series, and beat the Philadelphia A's four games to one. The Series was held in every subsequent season for 89 years.

The list of post-season rules evolved over time. In 1925, Brooklyn owner Charles Ebbets convinced others to adopt as a permanent rule the 2-3-2 pattern used in 1924. Prior to 1924, the pattern had been to alternate by game or to make another arrangement convenient to both clubs.

1919: The fix

Gambling and game-fixing had been a problem in professional baseball from the beginning; star pitcher Jim Devlin was banned for life in 1877, when the National League was just two years old. Baseball's gambling problems came to a head in 1919, when 8 players of the Chicago White Sox conspired to throw the 1919 World Series.

The Sox had won the Series in 1917 and were heavy favorites to beat the Cincinnati Reds in 1919, but first baseman Chick Gandil had other plans. Gandil, in collaboration with gambler Joseph "Sport" Sullivan, approached his teammates and got six of them to agree to throw the Series: starting pitchers Eddie Cicotte and Lefty Williams, shortstop Swede Risberg, left fielder Shoeless Joe Jackson, center fielder Happy Felsch, and utility infielder Fred McMullin. Third baseman Buck Weaver knew of the fix but declined to participate. The Sox, who were promised $100, 000 for cooperating, proceeded to lose the Series in eight games, pitching poorly, hitting poorly and making many errors. Though he took the money, Jackson insisted to his death that he played to the best of his ability in the series (he was the best hitter in the series, but had markedly worse numbers in the games the White Sox lost).

During the Series, writer and humorist Ring Lardner had facetiously called the event the "World's Serious". The Series turned out to indeed have serious consequences for the sport. After rumors circulated for nearly a year, the players were suspended in September 1920.

The "Black Sox" were acquitted in a criminal conspiracy trial. However, baseball in the meantime had established the office of Commissioner in an effort to protect the game's integrity, and the first commissioner, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, banned all of the players involved, including Weaver, for life. The White Sox would not win a World Series again until 2005.

The events of the 1919 Series, seguéing into the "live ball" era, marked a point in time of change of the fortunes of a number of teams. The two most prolific World Series winners to date, the Yankees and the Cardinals, did not win their first championship until the 1920s; and three of the teams that were highly successful prior to 1920 (the Red Sox, White Sox and Cubs) went the rest of the 20th century without another World Series win. The Red Sox and White Sox finally won again in 2004 and 2005, respectively. The Cubs are still waiting for their next trophy.

New York Yankees dynasty (1920–1964)

The New York Yankees traded for Babe Ruth from the Boston Red Sox after the 1919 season, appeared in their first World Series two years later in 1921, and became frequent participants thereafter. Over a period of 45 years from 1920 to 1964, the Yankees played in 29 World Series championships, winning 20. The team's dynasty reached its apex between 1947 and 1964, when the Yankees reached the World Series 15 times in eighteen years (missing only 1948, 1954, and 1959), winning ten. From 1949 to 1953, the Yankees won the World Series five years in a row; from 1936-1939 The Yankees won four World Championships in a row. There are only two other occasions when a team has won at least three consecutive World Series: 1972 to 1974 by the Oakland Athletics, and 1998 to 2000 by the New York Yankees.

1969: League Championship Series

Prior to 1969, the National League and the American League each crowned its champion (the "pennant winner") based on the best win-loss record at the end of the regular season.

A structured playoff series began in 1969, when both the National and American Leagues were reorganized into two divisions each, East and West. The two division winners within each league played each other in a best-of-five League Championship Series to determine who would advance to the World Series. In 1985, the format changed to best-of-seven.

The National League Championship Series (NLCS) and American League Championship Series (ALCS), since the expansion to best-of-seven, are always played in a 2-3-2 format: Games 1, 2, 6 and 7 are played in the stadium of the team that has home-field advantage, and Games 3, 4 and 5 are played in the stadium of the team that does not.

1971: World Series at night

MLB night games started being held in 1935 by the Cincinnati Reds, but the World Series remained a strictly daytime event for years thereafter. In the final game of the 1949 World Series, a Series game was finished under lights for the first time. The first scheduled night World Series game was Game 4 of the 1971 World Series.^[15] Afterwards more and more Series games were scheduled at night, when television audiences were larger. Game 6 of the 1987 World Series was the last World Series game played in the daytime.^[16]

1972-1978: Three of a kind

During this seven year period, only three teams won the world series: the Oakland Athletics from 1972–1974, Cincinnati Reds in 1975 and 1976, and New York Yankees in 1977 and 1978. This is the only time in World Series history in which three different teams have won consecutive series in succession.

1976: The Designated Hitter comes to the World Series

The National and American Leagues operated under essentially identical rules until 1973, when the American League adopted the designated hitter rule, allowing its teams to use another hitter to bat in place of the (usually) weak-hitting pitcher. The National League did not adopt the DH rule. This presented a problem for the World Series, whose two contestants would now be playing their regular-season games under different rules. From 1973 to 1975, the World Series did not include a DH. Starting in 1976, the World Series allowed for the use of a DH in even-numbered years only. Finally, in 1986, baseball adopted the current rule in which the DH is used for World Series games played in the AL champion's park but not the NL champion's. Thus, the DH rule's use or non-use can help the team that has home-field advantage.

1989 earthquake

When the 1989 World Series began, it was notable chiefly for being the first ever World Series matchup between the two San Francisco Bay Area teams, the San Francisco Giants and Oakland Athletics. Oakland won the first two games at home, and the two teams crossed the bridge to San Francisco to play Game 3 on Tuesday, October 17. ABC's broadcast of Game 3 began at 5 p.m. local time, approximately 30 minutes before the first pitch was scheduled. At 5:04, while broadcasters Al Michaels and Tim McCarver were narrating highlights and the teams were warming up, the Loma Prieta earthquake occurred (magnitude 6.9 with an epicenter ten miles (16 km) northeast of Santa Cruz, CA). The earthquake caused substantial property and economic damage in the Bay Area and killed 62 people. Television viewers saw the video signal deteriorate and heard Michaels say "I'll tell you what, we're having an earth--" before the feed from Candlestick Park was lost. Fans filing into the stadium saw Candlestick sway visibly during the quake. Television coverage later resumed, using backup generators, with Michaels becoming a news reporter on the unfolding disaster. Approximately 30 minutes after the earthquake, Commissioner Fay Vincent ordered the game to be postponed. Fans, workers, and the teams evacuated a blacked out (although still sunlit) Candlestick. Game 3 was finally played on October 27, and Oakland won that day and the next to complete a four-game sweep.

1992-1993 The World Series goes North

World Series games were contested outside of the United States for the first time in 1992, with the Toronto Blue Jays defeating the Atlanta Braves in six games. The World Series returned to Canada in 1993, with the Blue Jays victorious again, this time against the Philadelphia Phillies in six games. No other Series has featured a team from outside of the United States. Toronto is only one of four teams in the expansion era to win successive World Series titles. The 1993 World Series was also notable for being only the second championship concluded by a home run and the first concluded by a come-from-behind homer, after Joe Carter's three-run shot in the bottom of the ninth inning sealed an 8–6 Toronto win in Game 6. The first Series to end with a homer was the 1960 World Series, when Bill Mazeroski hit a ninth-inning solo shot in Game 7 to win the championship for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

1994: League Division Series

In 1994, each league was restructured into three divisions, with the three division winners and the newly introduced wild card winner advancing to a best-of-five playoff round (the "division series"), the National League Division Series (NLDS) and American League Division Series (ALDS). The team with the best league record is matched against the wild card team, unless they are in the same division, in which case, the team with the second-best record plays against the wild card winner. The remaining two division winners are pitted against each other. The winners of the series in the first round advance to the best-of-seven NLCS and ALCS. Due to a players' strike, however, the inaugural NLDS and ALDS were not played until 1995. Home field advantage is given to the team with the better regular season record, with the exception that the Wild Card team cannot get home-field advantage.

1994–95 strike

After the boycott of 1904, the World Series was played every year until 1994 despite World War I, the global influenza pandemic of 1918–19, the Great Depression of the 1930s, America's involvement in World War II, and even an earthquake in the host cities of the 1989 World Series. A breakdown in collective bargaining led to a strike in August 1994 and the eventual cancellation of the rest of the season, including the playoffs.

As the labor talks began, baseball franchise owners demanded a salary cap in order to limit payrolls, the elimination of salary arbitration, and the right to retain free agent players by matching a competitor's best offer. The Major League Baseball Players Association refused to agree to limit payrolls, noting that the responsibility for high payrolls lay with those owners who were voluntarily offering contracts. One difficulty in reaching a settlement was the absence of a commissioner. When Fay Vincent was forced to resign in 1992, owners did not replace him, electing instead to make Milwaukee Brewers owner Bud Selig acting commissioner. Thus the commissioner, responsible for ensuring the integrity and protecting the welfare of the game, was an interested party rather than a neutral arbiter, and baseball headed into the 1994 work stoppage without an independent commissioner for the first time since the office was founded in 1920.

The previous collective bargaining agreement expired on Dec. 31, 1993, and baseball began the 1994 season without a new agreement. Owners and players negotiated as the season progressed, but owners refused to give up the idea of a salary cap and players refused to accept one. On August 12, 1994, the players went on strike. After a month passed with no progress in the labor talks, Selig cancelled the rest of the 1994 season and the postseason on Sept. 14. The World Series was not played for the first time in 90 years. The Montreal Expos were the best team in baseball at the time of the stoppage, with a record of 74-40. (Since their founding in 1969, the Expos, now the Washington Nationals, have never played in a World Series.)

The labor dispute lasted into the spring of 1995, with owners beginning spring training with replacement players. However, the MLBPA returned to work on April 2, 1995 after a federal judge, future U.S. Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor, ruled that the owners had engaged in unfair labor practices. The season started on April 25 and the 1995 World Series was played as scheduled, with Atlanta beating Cleveland four games to two.

2003: All-Star Game used to determine home-field advantage

Prior to 2003, home-field advantage in the World Series alternated from year to year between the NL and AL. After the 2002 Major League Baseball All-Star Game ended in a tie, MLB decided to award home-field advantage in the World Series to the winner of the All-Star Game. (It is unclear who would receive home-field advantage if the All-Star Game ends in a tie or if the All-Star Game is rained out.) Originally implemented as a two-year trial from 2003 to 2004, the practice has been extended indefinitely. The American League won every All-Star Game since this change until 2010 and thus has enjoyed home-field advantage from 2002, when it also had home-field advantage based on the alternating schedule, through 2009. The decision has upset some purists (and National League fans). Subsequently, the AL has won the Series four times, and the NL has won three times; no series has gone seven games.

Modern World Series appearances by franchise

World Series record by team or franchise, 1903-2009

Notes

American League (AL) teams have won 62 of the 105 World Series played so far (62–43 or 59%–41%). Of that number, the New York Yankees have won 27, accounting for about 25% of all the series played and about 44% of the 62 wins by American League teams. The St. Louis Cardinals have won 10 World Series, or about 10% of all victories and about 23% of the 43 National League victories.

By the first World Series in 1903, eight teams belonged to the American League (founded in 1901), and another eight to the National League (or "Senior Circuit", founded in 1876). Each of the 16 original teams has now won at least two Series.

No new team joined either league until 1961. Out of the 14 "expansion teams" which have joined since then, 11 have reached the World Series so far, while 18 out of the 47 Series (and 94 pennants) after 1960 have included an expansion team, always playing against one of the original 16 teams. Expansion teams won 9 of those 18 Series.

Team patterns in the World Series

This information is up to date through the 2009 World Series:

Streaks and droughts

1. Since their first championship in 1923, the New York Yankees have won two or more World Series titles in every decade except the 1980s, when they won none. Additionally, they have won at least one American League pennant in every decade since the 1920s. The Yankees are the only team in either League to win more than three series in a row, winning in four consecutive seasons from 1936 to 1939, and five consecutive seasons from 1949 to 1953.
2. The New York Giants' four World Series appearances from 1921 to 1924 are the most consecutive appearances for any National League franchise.
3. The 1907–1908 Cubs, 1921–1922 Giants and 1975–1976 Reds are the only National League teams to win back-to-back World Series.
4. The 1907–1909 Detroit Tigers and the 1911–1913 New York Giants are the only teams to lose three consecutive World Series.
5. The Chicago Cubs hold the record for the longest World Series drought (still active through 2009), with their last title coming in 1908 (102 years). In fact, they also hold the longest drought without a World Series appearance, not having won the NL pennant since 1945. Even had they won the 1945 World Series, they would still hold the longest active World Series championship drought, the second longest being since 1948 by the Cleveland Indians.
6. Twenty-two of the 27 teams to play in the World Series have won it at least once. The only exceptions are: Houston Astros (formerly Colt .45s, enfranchised in 1962), Milwaukee Brewers (formerly Seattle Pilots, 1969), San Diego Padres (1969), Colorado Rockies (1993), and Tampa Bay Rays (formerly Devil Rays, 1998). The Padres are the only one of these five to have appeared twice (1984, 1998).
7. As of 2009, only three teams (all of them expansion) have not won a pennant: the Texas Rangers (formerly Washington Senators, est. 1961), Washington Nationals (formerly Montreal Expos, est. 1969), and Seattle Mariners (est. 1977). However, all three teams have participated in post season play, either in the Division Series or League Championship Series.

Game-by-game

1. Game 7 has been won by the home team in the last 8 world series that have gone to seven games (the 1982 St. Louis Cardinals, 1985 Kansas City Royals, 1986 New York Mets, 1987 and 1991 Minnesota Twins, 1997 Florida Marlins, 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks, and 2002 Anaheim Angels). The 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates are the last team to win a World Series Game 7 on the road. The recent trend suggests the theoretical advantage to gaining Game 7 at home by winning the All-Star Game. This trend contradicts the previous historical trend in which Game 7 had been most often won by the road team: Not just 1979, but also 1975, 1972, 1971, 1968, 1967, 1965 and 1962. During the 1960s and 1970s, the home team had won Game 7 only in 1960, 1964, and 1973. However, no Series has extended to Game 7 since the All-Star Game rule took effect in 2003.
   The greatest comeback in World Series history was in 1968, when the Detroit Tigers came back from a 3-1 game disadvantage to win game 5 after being behind by 3 runs, then winning games 6 and 7 on the road at St. Louis.
2. The 1981 Los Angeles Dodgers are the last team to win a World Series after losing the first two games on the road (against New York). The recent tendency of a team winning the first two games at home and then winning the Series suggests the theoretical advantage to gaining home-field advantage (and the first two games at home) by winning the All-Star Game.
3. The Pittsburgh Pirates have won all five of their World Series championships in seven games.
4. There have been 18 World Series four-game (4–0) sweeps. Nine different teams have swept a World Series at least once, the Yankees having done so most often (8 times). Both the Red Sox and Reds have done it twice. The Braves, Orioles, White Sox, Dodgers, Athletics and Giants have each swept one Series. Six of these teams (all but the Orioles, Red Sox and White Sox) have also been swept 0–4 in at least one World Series. The Red Sox' two World Series sweeps are the most of any team that has never been swept in one.
5. The Athletics, Cardinals, Cubs, and Yankees are the only teams to be swept in two World Series. The Athletics and Yankees are the only two of these with at least one World Series sweep to their credit, the other two being among eight teams overall that have never swept a World Series, but have been swept in one (the Astros, Indians, Padres, Phillies, Pirates, and Rockies being the others).
6. The Cubs in 1907 and the Giants in 1922 won 4 games to 0, but each of those Series' included a tied game and are not considered to be true sweeps. In 1907, the first game was the tie and the Cubs won four straight after that. In 1922, Game 2 was the tie.
7. The Cincinnati Reds are the only National League team which has swept a World Series since 1963, sweeping the series in 1976 and 1990.
8. Nine World Series have ended with "walkoff" hits, i.e., that game and the Series ended when the home team won with a base hit in the bottom of the ninth or in extra innings.^[17] (Also, the 1912 World Series ended in a walkoff sacrifice fly.)^[18] The first walkoff Series winner came in the 1924 World Series, when Earl McNeely doubled home Muddy Ruel in the bottom of the 12th inning of Game 7 to win a championship for the Washington Senators. The most recent walkoff Series winner was the 2001 World Series, which ended with Luis Gonzalez blooping a single over the head of Derek Jeter to score Jay Bell. Two men have ended a World Series with a walk-off home run: Bill Mazeroski in 1960 and Joe Carter in 1993. Mazeroski's was a solo shot in the bottom of the ninth of Game 7 to win a championship for the Pittsburgh Pirates, while Carter's was a three-run shot in Game 6 that won a championship for the Toronto Blue Jays.
9. The Philadelphia Phillies and the Tampa Bay Rays are the first teams to have an elimination game (or any game) be suspended because of weather, and not have it cancelled. Game 5 (in Philadelphia) was suspended Monday, October 27, 2008 with a 2-2 score, and resumed in the bottom of the sixth on October 29.

Local rivalries

When two teams share the same state or metropolitan area, fans often develop strong loyalties to one and antipathies towards the other, sometimes building on already-existing rivalries between cities or neighborhoods. Before the introduction of interleague play in 1997, the only opportunity for two teams in different leagues to face each other in official competition would have been in a World Series.

Cross-town Series

The first city to host an entire World Series is Chicago in 1906, when the Chicago White Sox (AL) beat the Chicago Cubs in six games.

Fourteen "Subway Series" have been played entirely within New York City. Thirteen matched the American League's New York Yankees with either the New York Giants or Brooklyn Dodgers (NL) before those franchises moved to California in 1958. The fourteenth Subway Series, between the Yankees and New York Mets, took place in 2000. No subway, in fact, was necessary to travel between fields of the first two "Subway Series" in 1921 and 1922, since the opposing Yankees and Giants shared the Polo Grounds as their home park.

Only one other Series has been played entirely on one field: the 1944 World Series, where the St. Louis Cardinals (NL) defeated the St. Louis Browns in six games, all held in their shared home at Sportsman's Park.

The 1989 World Series, sometimes called the "Bay Bridge Series" or the "BART Series" (after the connecting transit line), featured two teams from the San Francisco Bay Area. The Oakland Athletics (A's) defeated the San Francisco Giants (NL) in a four-game sweep, after the series had been interrupted just before the start of Game 3 by an earthquake which severed the Bay Bridge and halted play for ten days.

Other neighbourhood rivalries

For the other two cities where a cross-town competition, connected by local transit, was once possible — Boston (till 1953 when the Braves moved to Milwaukee) and Philadelphia (till 1955 when the Athletics moved to Kansas City) — an October meeting came closest to occurring in 1948, when the Boston Braves won the National League pennant, and their nearby rivals, the Boston Red Sox, tied for the American League pennant on the last day of the season. However, the Cleveland Indians defeated the Red Sox in a one-game playoff, and then defeated the Braves in the Series.

Before the modern World Series era, an opportunity for an all-Boston contest between league champions was missed. In 1891, the Braves, then the Boston Beaneaters, of the National League declined to play the Boston Reds of the soon-to-dissolve American Association. The only meeting of neighbouring teams in the pre-modern World Series era occurred in 1889, when the National League's champion, the New York Giants, defeated the American Association's champion, the Brooklyn Bridegrooms.

Other cross-state rivalries

The historic rivalry between Northern and Southern California added to the interest in the Oakland Athletics-Los Angeles Dodgers series in 1974 and 1988 and in the San Francisco Giants' series against the then-Anaheim Angels in 2002. (The two Los Angeles area teams have never competed in a Series, nor has the only team in San Diego, the Padres, ever played a Series against another California team.)

Other than the St. Louis World Series of 1944, the only postseason tournament entirely within Missouri was the I-70 Series in 1985 (named for the interstate highway connecting the two cities) between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Kansas City Royals, who won at home in the seventh game.

While the Philadelphia Athletics never played in World Series against either the Philadelphia Phillies or the Pittsburgh Pirates, they did engage in a popular semi-annual tradition of preseason City Series exhibition games against the Phillies.

In the only other states that also have or once had teams in both major leagues since 1903, there has never been a World Series between teams in Ohio (Cincinnati Reds and Cleveland Indians), Florida (Florida Marlins and Tampa Bay Rays), or Texas (Houston Astros and Texas Rangers).

The original sixteen teams

At the time the first modern World Series began in 1903, each league had eight clubs, all of which survive today (although sometimes in a different city or with a new nickname), comprising the "original sixteen".

1. Every original team has won at least two World Series titles. The Philadelphia Phillies (National League) were the last of the original teams to win their first Series, in 1980. They were also the last to win at least two, with their second Series victory in 2008.
2. The last original American League team to win its first World Series was the Baltimore Orioles (former St. Louis Browns), winning in 1966.
3. The Orioles were also the last original team in the majors to make their first World Series appearance, as the St. Louis Browns in 1944. Although they never won another American League pennant while in St. Louis, they have won three World Series in six appearances since moving to Baltimore. The last original National League team to make their modern World Series début were the St. Louis Cardinals in 1926, which they also won. Ironically, as noted above, they have gone on to win more World Series than any other National League club, holding the lead at 10 victories through 2009.
4. The New York Yankees have defeated all eight original NL teams in a World Series. Conversely, they have lost at least one World Series to every original NL team except the Chicago Cubs and the Philadelphia Phillies. The Boston Red Sox have played at least one Series against every original National League team except the (Boston, Milwaukee and Atlanta) Braves, with whom they shared a home city through 1953.
5. The St. Louis Cardinals are currently the only club of the National League's original eight that holds an overall Series lead over the Yankees, 3 to 2, taking that lead in 1964.^[19] The Giants won their first two Series over the Yankees (1921 and 1922), but the Yankees have faced the Giants five times since then and have won all five, taking the overall lead over the Giants in 1937. The Pittsburgh Pirates and Yankees have faced each other twice (1927 and 1960), with the Yankees winning in 1927 and the Pirates winning in 1960, making the two teams .500 against each other.

Expansion teams (after 1960)

1. The 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks were the fastest expansion franchise ever to win a pennant (4th season) and a World Series (4th season), after being founded in 1998. Second fastest were the 1997 Florida Marlins, after being founded in 1993 (5th season). The fastest AL expansion franchise to win a pennant were the Tampa Bay Rays in 2008 (11th season) and the fastest AL expansion franchise to win a World Series were the Toronto Blue Jays in 1992 (16th season).
2. While the New York Mets (NL) were the first expansion team to win or appear in the World Series (1969), the American League would have to wait until 1980 for its first expansion-team World Series appearance, and until 1985 for its first expansion-team win. Both were by the Kansas City Royals. The AL also had two expansion teams appear in the World Series (the Milwaukee Brewers being the second, in 1982) before the National League's second expansion team to appear—the San Diego Padres in 1984.
3. No two out of the fourteen post-1960 expansion teams have yet met each other in a World Series, although eleven expansion teams have now contested at least one Series (each time against one of the sixteen teams established by 1903). Expansion teams are 9–9 in the World Series, with three teams (the New York Mets, Toronto Blue Jays and Florida Marlins) each winning two. Five expansion teams have appeared in the World Series without ever winning a championship: Houston Astros (formerly Colt .45s), Milwaukee Brewers (formerly Seattle Pilots), San Diego Padres, Colorado Rockies, and Tampa Bay Rays (formerly Devil Rays). Three expansion teams have not yet won a league pennant (and therefore also have not appeared in a World Series): the Texas Rangers (formerly the last Washington Senators), Seattle Mariners, and Washington Nationals (formerly Montreal Expos).
4. The Toronto Blue Jays (1992 and 1993), Florida Marlins (1997 and 2003) Arizona Diamondbacks (2001) and Anaheim Angels (2002) have never lost a World Series appearance.

Other notes

1. The team with the better regular season winning percentage has won the World Series 52 times, or 49% (52 of 105) of the time.
2. The Toronto Blue Jays are the only non-U.S. team ever to win a pennant or a World Series, doing both twice, in 1992 and 1993.
3. The Chicago Cubs are the only team with a title to have never clinched one at home.

International participation

In spite of its name, the World Series remains solely the championship of the major-league baseball teams in the United States and Canada, although MLB, its players, and the media sometimes informally refer to World Series winners as "world champions" of baseball.^[20] The United States, Canada and Mexico (Liga Méxicana de Béisbol, established 1925) were the only professional baseball countries until a few decades into the 20th century. The first Japanese professional baseball efforts began in 1920. The current Japanese leagues date from the late 1940s (after World War II). Various Latin American leagues also formed around that time.

By the 1990s, baseball was played at a highly-skilled level in many countries, giving a strong international flavor to the Series. Many of the best players from Latin America, the Caribbean, the Pacific Rim, and elsewhere now play on Major League rosters. The notable exceptions are Cuban citizens, because of the political tensions between the USA and Cuba since 1959 (however, a number of Cuba's finest ballplayers have still managed to defect to the United States over the past half-century to play in the American professional leagues). Players from the Japanese Leagues also have a more difficult time coming to the Major Leagues because they must first play 10 years in Japan before becoming free agents, although they may be posted by their Japanese teams for bids from MLB teams before 10 years of service. Reaching the high-income Major Leagues tends to be the goal of many of the best players around the world.

Image gallery

Rooftop view of a 1903 World Series game in Boston

Game action in the 1906 Series in Chicago (the only all-Chicago World Series to date)

Bill Wambsganss completes his unassisted triple play in 1920

Washington's Bucky Harris scores his home run in the fourth inning of Game 7 (October 10, 1924)

Willie Mays' catch in Game 1 of the 1954 World Series

See also

References

Source books

• Ernest Lanigan, Baseball Cyclopedia, 1922, originally published by Baseball Magazine, available as a reprint from McFarland.
• Turkin, Hy; S.C. Thompson (1951). The Official Encyclopedia of Baseball. A.S. Barnes and Company. 
• Buchanan, Lamont (1951). The World Series and Highlights of Baseball. E. P. Dutton & Company. 
• Jordan A. Deutsch, Richard M. Cohen, David Neft, Roland T. Johnson, The Scrapbook History of Baseball, 1975, Bobbs-Merrill Company.
• Cohen, Richard M.; David Neft, Roland T. Johnson, Jordan A. Deutsch (1976). The World Series. Dial Press. 
• The New York Times (1980). The Complete Book of Baseball: A Scrapbook History. 
• Sporting News, Baseball Record Book and Baseball Guide, published annually since ca. 1941.
• Lansch, Jerry (1991). Glory Fades Away: The Nineteenth Century World Series Rediscovered. Taylor Publishing. ISBN 0-87833-726-1. 

Other sources

• 100 Years of the World Series. [DVD]. Major League Baseball. 2002. 

External links

• Baseball Reference "postseason" page, listing every World Series, with links to play-by-play summaries of every game
• WorldSeries.com - Official Website
• Sporting News: History of the World Series
• Baseball Almanac: World Series
• Coolest World Series teams ever
• ESPN Classic - Who's #1?: Best World Series
• World Series Rings