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
Pro baseball was thriving The World Series was becoming a spectacle Fans loved it Owners and players liked the extra revenue it brought in But change was on its way THE DEADBALL ERA Baseball historians refer to the period from 1900 to 1919 as the Deadball Era During this time offenses struggled to score runs Home runs were extremely rare The low point of the era came in 1908 That season teams averaged just 3 4 runs per game the lowest total in the game's modern era 1901 present day The 1919 season marked the end of the Deadball Era Babe Ruth hit 29 home runs that season Offense increased sharply Historians don't agree on the exact reason for the sudden change Some say it's because the ball itself changed The old balls were softer They were reused again and again leading to flat spots that further deadened them off the bat Others point to the building of smaller ballparks with shorter outfield fences Still others say that outlawing the spitball a pitch in which the pitcher actually used saliva or another substance to affect the ball's movement gave offenses a huge boost It was probably a combination of all these factors One thing is certain fans loved all the extra action The end of the Deadball Era marked the beginning of a golden age of baseball that featured stars from Babe Ruth to Joe DiMaggio to Stan Musial DARK DAYS AND A NEW ERA The 1919 season was one of change for baseball and the World Series both for good and bad First it marked the beginning of an offensive explosion Scoring soared league wide ending what historians call the Deadball Era Secondly it marked Ruth's final year in Boston The Red Sox sold him to the New York Yankees after the season And finally that season's World Series still stands as perhaps the game's darkest days THE WORLD SERIES
The 1919 World Series between the Chicago White Sox and the Cincinnati Reds marked the beginning of a short lived experiment to make the World Series a best of nine affair it returned to its best of seven format three years later The Reds won the series 5 3 But that was not the headline Eight Chicago players took money from gamblers to fix the series to lose on purpose The Black Sox scandal was an embarrassment to baseball and threatened to destroy fans confidence that the games were being played fairly by both sides Owners never wanted something like that to happen again They appointed former judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis commissioner of baseball After a lengthy investigation in 1920 Landis handed down to the eight players the harshest punishment he could banning them from the game for life Babe Ruth by this time playing outfield for the Yankees helped restore the reputation of baseball and the World Series Ruth was tearing up the AL hitting 54 home runs in 1920 and 59 the next season Only a decade earlier a dozen home runs could easily have led the league Ruth s power was almost beyond imagination Not surprisingly fans loved it with the possible exception of Red Sox fans who watched their entire team hit just 17 home runs in 1921 Ruth led the Yankees to six World Series appearances during the 1920s and established the team as baseball s most prestigious franchise His emergence as baseball s first true superstar along with the strong decisive actions of Commissioner Landis helped baseball overcome what could have been a crippling scandal World Series
