World Series

V

Impact of Television

Television brought a new dimension to the World Series in the decades after World War II. The new technology was first applied to the World Series in 1946, when games between the Cardinals and the Boston Red Sox were broadcast locally in Boston. Baseball on television grew in popularity during the 1950s, as more homes acquired television sets and broadcasters improved their coverage of the games.

During the 1960s, black-and-white telecasts were replaced with color, and major networks negotiated exclusive rights to broadcast postseason games. Networks provided detailed World Series coverage, featuring close-up images of play, instant replays of exciting moments, and analysis from baseball commentators. Television enabled fans to closely follow each play from their homes. Today, television coverage is an integral part of the World Series, allowing millions of people from all over the world the opportunity to follow every pitch of each game.

VI

Championship Parity

The Yankees' era of domination ended during the 1960s. One of the team's most dramatic losses came in the 1960 World Series, when it faced the Pittsburgh Pirates. The series extended to the seventh game, when Pirates second baseman Bill Mazeroski hit a game-winning home run at the end of the ninth inning, to give Pittsburgh its first championship since 1925. The Yankees also lost consecutive World Series in 1963 and 1964 to the Dodgers and the Cardinals.

World Series competition became more balanced after the mid-1960s. The NL and the AL each added new teams, and several existing clubs moved to new cities. The New York Mets, formed in 1962, became responsible for one of the biggest surprises to arise from baseball's expansion. In their first few years, the Mets gained a reputation as one of baseball's poorest teams. But in 1969, they shocked the baseball world by winning 100 regular-season games. They then proceeded to defeat the heavily favored Baltimore Orioles, 4 games to 1, in the World Series.

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The Oakland Athletics emerged as one of baseball's best teams in the 1970s. Led by stars such as Rollie Fingers and Reggie Jackson, Oakland won the series in 1972, 1973, and 1974. After joining the Yankees, Jackson became the star of the 1977 World Series by hitting four consecutive home runs against the Dodgers during the fifth and sixth games. Jackson’s historic performance earned him the World Series most valuable player (MVP) award, an honor created in 1955. The Yankees repeated as champions the following season, defeating the Dodgers for the second straight year.

The 1980s saw a string of World Series champions. No team managed to win two in a row, and 11 different teams won from 1979 through 1991, with the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Minnesota Twins each winning twice during the span. The St. Louis Cardinals made three World Series appearances in the 1980s, winning the championship in 1982. The leagues also were almost evenly represented—seven NL teams and six AL teams won during those years. In 1992 and 1993, however, the Toronto Blue Jays won consecutive World Series. Their victory in 1992 made them the first club based outside the United States to win the major league championship. Because of a strike by major league players that lasted from August 1994 to April 1995, no World Series was played in 1994.

In 1995 the Atlanta Braves won the series, their only victory in five World Series appearances during the decade. A year later the Yankees began a championship streak, winning four World Series titles in five years. The only interruption of this streak came in 1997, when the Florida Marlins won the series in only their fifth year of existence. In 2000 the Yankees and Mets squared off in a so-called Subway Series, the first series involving two teams from the same city since 1956. The Yankees won, giving the franchise its third straight title and 26th overall.

VII

21st Century

First-time World Series wins by the Marlins, the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2001, and the Anaheim Angels (now the Los Angeles Angels) in 2002 left eight major league franchises that had never won a World Series championship: the Colorado Rockies, Houston Astros, Milwaukee Brewers, Washington Nationals (formerly the Montréal Expos), San Diego Padres, Seattle Mariners, Tampa Bay Devil Rays, and Texas Rangers. In 2003 the Marlins won a second title, defeating the Yankees in six games in the World Series.

In 2004 the Boston Red Sox ended one of the most famous championship droughts in sports, winning their first World Series title in 86 years. Boston made an improbable comeback from a 3-0 deficit in the AL Championship Series, winning four straight over the Yankees to reach the Series. There the Red Sox defeated the St. Louis Cardinals in four games to end what many called the Curse of the Bambino, a story attributing decades of postseason frustration to the franchise’s decision to sell Babe Ruth to the Yankees in 1920.

An even longer championship drought ended the following season when the Chicago White Sox won the Series for the first time since 1917. Chicago was making just its second World Series appearance since the Black Sox scandal of 1919, when Sox players were paid by gamblers to lose the Series. For the second year in a row the American League team swept the National League representative in four games, with the White Sox defeating the Houston Astros, a team participating in its first Fall Classic.

The Cardinals returned to the World Series in 2006 and this time won, defeating the Detroit Tigers 4 games to 1. The Cardinals’ appearance marked the third straight time that a team from the National League’s Central Division appeared in the World Series. It was the Cardinals’ tenth world championship, the most of any National League team.

In 2007 the Colorado Rockies made their first World Series appearance, winning the National League pennant with a torrid streak in which they took 21 of their last 22 games. The Rockies came from four games back in the standings to win the wild-card berth and then went undefeated in the NL playoffs with 7 straight victories. But in the World Series they faced the Boston Red Sox, who returned to their championship form of 2004. The Red Sox had to come from a 3-games-to-1 deficit in the American League championship series with the Cleveland Indians to win the AL title. The Red Sox swept the World Series from the Rockies, 4 games to 0, recording their own 7-game win streak in doing so.