World Series (redirected from Fall Classic)

World Series

Annual championship of U.S. major league baseball, played between the top team of the American League (AL) and that of the National League (NL). First held in 1903, it was canceled the following year after the New York Giants (NL) refused to play Boston (AL). The series resumed in 1905 and continued annually until a players' strike in 1994 forced its cancellation that year. A seven-game series has been standard since 1922.

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World Series

October

Also known as the Fall Classic, this best-of-seven-games play-off is between the championship baseball teams of the American and National Leagues. Games are played in the home parks of the participating teams, but the Series is truly a national event. For many it marks the spiritual end of summer and is a uniquely American occasion—like the Fourth of July.
The first World Series was played in 1903 between the Boston Red Sox and the Pittsburgh Pirates. There was a lapse in 1904, but the Series resumed in 1905 and has been played annually ever since. The seven-game format was adopted in 1922.
Highlights of the Series mirror the symbolism of life that some see in the game itself; they include moments of athletic perfection and of human error, of drama and of scandal.
The scandal came when eight team members of the Chicago White Sox (ever afterwards to be known as the Black Sox) were accused of conspiring with gamblers to lose the 1919 World Series. Star left fielder "Shoeless" Joe Jackson admitted his part in the scandal, and on leaving court one day, heard the plea of a tearful young fan, "Say it ain't so, Joe."
Brooklyn Dodgers catcher Mickey Owen brought groans from fans with an error that has resounded in Series history. He let a ball get away from him—in 1941, in the ninth inning, on the third strike, with the Dodgers ahead of the New York Yankees by one run. The Yankee team revived and went on to win. Fifteen years later, in 1956, Yankee pitcher Don Larsen gave fans a rare thrill when he pitched a perfect game (no hits, no walks, no runners allowed on base) against the Dodgers, beating them 2-0. It remains the only perfect game pitched in a Series. Both these World Series were called Subway Series, because New York City fans could commute by subway from the Dodgers' Ebbets Field in Brooklyn to Yankee Stadium in the Bronx.
Another dramatic moment came in the 1989 Series. On Oct. 17, at 5:04 p.m., while 60,000 fans were waiting for the introduction of the players at San Francisco's Candlestick Park, an earthquake struck and the ballpark swayed. Players and fans were safely evacuated (although 67 people in other parts of the city died in the quake), and 10 days later the Series resumed in the same park. The Oakland Athletics mowed down the San Francisco Giants in four straight games.

CONTACTS:
Office of the Baseball Commissioner
245 Park Ave., 31st Fl.
New York, NY 10167
800-975-3277 or 212-931-7800; fax: 212-949-8636
www.mlb.com

SOURCES:
BkHolWrld-1986, Oct 17
HolSymbols-2009, p. 1064