Here’s a look at Major League Baseball’s World Series. The Houston Astros are the reigning 2017 World Series champions.
November 1, 2017 – The Houston Astros win their first World Series in the franchise’s history, defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-1 in Game 7 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.
Other Facts:
The annual championship series, referred to as the “Fall Classic,” is played between the American League and National League champions.
The first team to win four of the seven games wins the championship.
Through 2016, the American League has won 64 World Series championships, and the National League has won 48.
The New York Yankees have won the most World Series championships at 27, and the St. Louis Cardinals come in second with 11.
The Yankees have won back to back World Series more than any other team, six times, 1927 and 1928, 1936 through 1939, 1949 through 1953, 1961 and 1962, 1977 and 1978, and 1998 through 2000.
Only two current franchises have never appeared in the World Series: the Seattle Mariners and the Washington Nationals (formerly the Montreal Expos).
Each year, the winning team receives the Commissioner’s Trophy, which is made of sterling silver, and features flags representing all 30 Major League teams.
Timeline:
1903 – The first World Series is played. The Boston Pilgrims beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, five games to three.
1904 – The World Series is not played. The National League champions the New York Giants refuse to play the American League champions the Boston Pilgrims, due to rivalry between the leagues.
1905 – The World Series resumes after guidelines for the series are drawn up.
1918 – The Boston Red Sox win the World Series, but don’t win again until 2004. Legend has it the Red Sox are cursed after Boston trades Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees.
1919 – In five games to three, the Cincinnati Reds beat the heavily favored Chicago White Sox. Almost a year later in what is dubbed the Black Sox Scandal, eight White Sox players, including “Shoeless Joe” Jackson, are accused of conspiring with gamblers to lose on purpose. The eight players are later acquitted in a 1921 trial, but are banned for life from professional baseball by new commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis. A ninth player, Joe Gedeon of the St. Louis Browns, is also banned for life for having prior knowledge of the fix.
1956 – The only no-hitter in World Series history, a perfect game: New York Yankees vs. Brooklyn Dodgers, game five pitched by Yankees’ Don Larsen. Yankees win 2-0.
1992 – The Toronto Blue Jays become the first non-US team to win the World Series. They also win the 1993 World Series.
1994 – The players’ strike causes the World Series to be canceled.
2004 – The Boston Red Sox become the first team in history to come back from a 0-3 deficit in the playoffs and go on to win 4-3, landing them a spot in the World Series matchup. They win the World Series for the first time in 86 years in the fourth game by a score of 3-0.
October 28, 2009 – The latest date the World Series has ever started.
November 22, 2011 – MLB and the MLBPA announce that in 2012 Postseason play will expand by a second wild card being awarded to the club in each league with the second-best overall record among clubs that do not win a division.
October 24, 2017 – At the start of Game 1 of the 2017 World Series, the temperature is 103 degrees, the warmest on record in World Series history.