Who won the first World Series?

The 1903 World Series was the first modern World Series to be played in Major League Baseball. It matched the Boston Americans (now the Red Sox) of the American League against the Pittsburgh Pirates of the National League in a best-of-nine series, with Boston prevailing five games to three.

In the series, Boston came back from a three games to one deficit, winning the final four games to capture the title. Such a large comeback would not happen again until the Pirates came back to defeat the Washington Senators in the 1925 World Series. Much was made of the influence of Boston's "Royal Rooters", who traveled to Exposition Park and sang their theme song "Tessie" to distract the opposing players, especially Honus Wagner. Boston wound up winning three out of four games in Allegheny City.

Pirates owner Barney Dreyfuss added his share of the gate receipts to the players' share, so the losing team's players actually finished with a larger individual share than the winning team's.

The Series brought the new American League prestige and proved its best could beat the best of the National League, thus strengthening the demand for future World Series competitions.

More Info: en.wikipedia.org

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15 Comments

Corey Taylor

Marvin Ponton, The town name was on the jersey, but the team name has changed since then.

Corey Taylor

I'll never forget the night they buried the Bambino!

Corey Taylor

elizawheeler, You only have 101 more seasons to wait.

Marvin Ponton

Good thing the name was on their jersey

elizawheeler

I probably won't live long enough to see the Cubbies win again, but at least I got to see it once in my life:)

Howard Groopman

And the Red Sox went 86 years from 1918-2004 before winning again.

John W Shreve

Michael W. Strode, A man after my own heart. The first Major League Baseball post-season series was played that year between the (then Major League) New York Metropolitans of the American Association and the National League's champions, the Providence Grays. It was a best of three set, the Grays winning the first two and played the third, hoping for a large gate. The crowd for game three was only about 600 (some sources say 300) as the weather was terrible. Providence won that game as well with Charles "Old Hoss" Radbourne winning all three. BTW, the Metropolitans joined the National League, changing its name to the Gothams and then to the Giants.

John W Shreve

Johnny Rock, Under the "Brush Rules," enacted in 1905, the World's Series (as it was called then) became the best of seven, but in 1919, Cincinnati Reds owner Garry Herrmann convinced baseball to extend it to nine games once again. The next three World Series all ended in seven or eight games and Major League Baseball went back to the best of seven in effect today.