The crowd rushes onto the field after Game 1 of the 1903 World Series
One WORLD SERIES HISTORY A CENTURY OF THE FALL CLASSIC he World Series may be a spectacle in recent years but it didn t start out that way In 1900 the National League NL was the dominant professional baseball league But not every team was making money So the NL decided to cut back from 12 teams to eight Ban Johnson was the president of a small league called the Western League He saw an opportunity to compete with the NL as a top league Johnson created the American League AL and raided the NL for some of its best players Tensions between the two leagues were high At first NL owners had little interest in a series between the two leagues champions But that changed in 1903 The NL champion Pittsburgh Pirates challenged the AL champs the Boston Americans also called the Pilgrims or Patriots to a series to determine the world championship The clubs agreed to play a best of nine games series And so the World Series was born And what a series it was The Pirates favored to win it all surged to a 3 1 series lead But the Americans stormed back to win the next four games and stun the Pirates If there was any question that the young AL was a match for the established NL it was erased in that first series
The 1903 World Series was not a formal championship between the NL and the AL League officials had not organized it The Pirates and the Americans had arranged the series on their own So in 1904 when the New York Giants won the NL title they refused to play against Boston the AL champs The Giants claimed that the AL was an interior league despite the Americans victory in the 1903 series The Giants declared themselves world champs and there was no World Series It would be another 90 years before another fall without the Fall Classic THE FIRST WORLD SERIES Most historians view the 1903 World Series as the first But some point to a series played in 1884 The New York Metropolitans champions of a league called the American Association AA challenged the NL champion Providence Grays to a championship series They played three games in late October in cold windy conditions Cold and darkness forced an early end to Game 2 Then the teams agreed to end Game 3 early because of darkness The Grays won all three games and claimed the title of US champions THE SERIES RETURNS By 1905 the relationship between the two leagues had improved Owners on both sides saw the advantages of a championship series So they made it formal the two champions would play a best of seven series in October The first team to get four wins would take the championship This format remains in place today The Giants won the NL again in 1905 This time they were ready to face the AL champion Philadelphia Athletics The Giants had described the AL as inferior and they made their case in 1905 with an easy victory in five games The NL looked to continue that dominance in 1906 with the Chicago Cubs who went 116 36 during the regular season But the Chicago White Sox stunned them in six games bringing THE WORLD SERIES
glory back to the AL The Cubs bounced back and became the first back to back champs in 1907 and 1908 Modern baseball fans might find that ironic since the Cubs haven't won the series since The early 1900s was an era of dynasties The Philadelphia Athletics won it all in 1910 1911 and 1913 Then the Boston Red Sox formerly the Americans took over winning in 1915 1916 and 1918 One of Boston's key players was a young pitcher named Babe Ruth In three World Series starts Ruth went 3 0 with a 0.87 earned run average ERA Those were outstanding numbers but compared to Ruth's amazing hitting feats in years to come they're all but forgotten
