Which team won the first Major League Baseball World Series in 1903?

The first World Series to be played in Major League Baseball was in 1903. The American League champions, the Boston Americans, went up against the National League champions, Pittsburgh Pirates. The format was a best-of-nine series. Boston prevailed after losing the first game by winning the last four.

The Americans were led by 38 year old Hall of Fame pitcher Cy Young, who went 28 wins and 9 loses in 1903 and pitched 34 innings in the World Series with an ERA of 1.85. Earned Run Average (ERA) is the average runs a pitcher allows per nine innings pitched.

With Boston down 3 games to 1, Cy Young was called upon in the crucial fifth game. Young delivered with a six hit performance and drove in three runs in an 11 runs to 2 rout. Afterwards Young was quoted as saying "I thought I had to show all my stuff and I almost tore the boards off the grandstand with my fastball."

The Pirates roster included legendary shortstop Honus Wagner, whose batting average was .355 and drove in 101 runs for the season. Wagner was so distraught by his performance in the World Series, he batted only .222 with no home runs and 3 runs batted in (RBI), that the following spring, he refused to send his portrait to the "Hall of Fame" for batting champions.