It’s time for that “Fall Classic” again — the World Series. I think I’ve mentioned before that when I was a kid, the World Series took precedence over just about everything this time of year. All the World Series games were played during the day back then, and you never went into a store that didn’t have a radio tuned to the World Series. I remember we even got to listen to the World Series on the radio during school sometimes.
Today? Not so much — I actually checked to see what day (night) the series starts this year. So lots of things have changed over the years, and the World Series is one of them…. in case you don’t know — and care — the 2022 World Series starts Friday night, October 28.
But even though it’s not as popular as it used to be, it’s still an American Classic — the first official World Series was held in 1903. Since that time, it’s been played every year except for two years. In 1904, the National League champion, New York Giants, refused to play against the American League champion, the Boston Americans, because the Giants manager had personal animosity against the American League president. (New rules were drafted the following year, compelling the champions of both leagues to participate in the World Series.) Most of us remember the only other time the series wasn’t played — in 1994 due to the players strike.
That first World Series in 1903 was played between the Pittsburgh Pirates an the Boston Americans. It was a best-of-nine series, not a best-of-seven that they play today. The Americans won that first series five games to three.
The longest World Series game in history (in both time and innings) took place in Game 3 on October 26, 2018, between the Boston Red Sox and the L.A. Dodgers. The Dodgers ended up winning 3-2 after 7 hours and 20 minutes.
Even though baseball had been playing night games since the 1930s, it wasn’t until 1971 that the World Series had a night game. Apparently Major League Baseball figured out that most people were watching the World Series on TV, but it’s hard to watch TV at school or work. The first night game was played between the Pittsburg Pirates and the Baltimore Orioles.
Deion Sanders is the only person with the distinction of playing in both a World Series and two Super Bowls. He played in the 1992 World Series for the Atlanta Braves and played in back-to-back Super Bowls with San Francisco and Dallas.
Don Larsen of the Yankees pitched the only no-hitter — and it was a perfect game — in World Series history during game 5 of the 1956 World Series.
The first pinch-hit home run in World Series history was hit by Yogi Berra in Game 3 of the 1947 World Series.
In 2003 it was decided that the winning team of the MLB All-Star game would determine which league would have home-field advantage in the World Series.The change was intended to add strategy (and probably interest) to the exhibition game.
The 2016 World Series featured the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians — the two teams with the longest championship drought in history. The Cubs hadn’t won since 1908, and the Indians since 1948, a combined 176-year drought. Prior to winning in 2016, the Cubs had the longest drought of winning a championship in all major American sports..
Some believe the Cubs drought was caused by a “curse.” Baseball is full of superstitions and one of the best is the “curse” supposedly placed on the Chicago Cubs… In 1945, Billy Sianis, the owner of Billy Goat Tavern, was ordered to leave the Cubs’ World Series game against the Detroit Tigers. Apparently the pet goat that traveled most places with Billy was so smelly it was upsetting the other fans. Outraged at this insult to his goat, Billy announced that the Cubs wouldn’t win. They didn’t — even though they kept trying every year. Many attempts were made over the years to break the curse, including getting Billy Sianis’ nephew to bring a goat into Wrigley Field.
And even though it may be called “The World Series,” it doesn’t really include the rest of the world. The Toronto Blue Jays are the only team outside the U.S. to have won the World Series.
Friday night, this year’s version of the fall classic begins — hopefully it’ll be an exciting series and, hopefully, something will happen that will make World Series history and we’ll be talking about around the water cooler — or at least on social media…..
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