MLB World Series

The World Series may be the most exciting time in sports for all of America. After months preseason talk, spring training, regular season, and finally weeks of postseason play – it’s finally here. The World Series. All eyes on two teams. Four victorious games and one team is heralded for an entire year, while the loser must lick his wounds, wash the taste of immortal glory from his mouth, and already begin to think about next season.

The World Series (a.k.a. October Classic, The Series) first appeared in 1903 in a match between the Boston Americans (now Red Sox) from the American League and the Pittsburgh Pirates of the National League. The Sox won the series five games to three, giving credibility to the American League (The American League was a newly founded division). The following year, the Red Sox once more made the Series but opponents New York Giants refused to play on grounds that the American League was inferior and that there were no formalized rules for the championship. Quick to respond, the MLB instituted the new World Series in 1905 as a permanent fixture. The leagues would “meet annually in a series of games for the professional baseball championship of the world.

Since then, significant World Series changes have been instituted. In 1969, the MLB established the Pennant Match: a best of five (later seven) series between the each league’s East and West best teams, with each leagues winner meeting in the World Series. In 1994, Central Divisions were added to each league, and wild card teams were added to the playoffs. This is the current structure of MLB postseason. So pick up your World Series tickets today and take part in the great American Pastime.