World Series

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World Series refers to the final of the US Baseball - professional leagues . Every year in October, the winners of the National League and American League meet in the World Series . The winner of the World Series is not only a North American baseball champion, but is also considered the world's best team due to the outstanding position of the MLB. The World Series is one of the most important national sporting events in the USA and can be compared in importance to the Super Bowl of the NFL ( American Football ).

history

The first World Series took place in 1903 , initially as a supposedly one-off arrangement between the two previously warring leagues in the form of a best-of-nine series. The winner of the first meeting was the Boston Red Sox , title holder of the American League, with a 5-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates . The World Series has been held annually since 1905.

In 1919, a staged series in which players let bookmakers buy their defeat triggered a scandal that is still notorious to this day, the "Black Sox Scandal" - the team bought was actually called the Chicago White Sox . Sports betting was then severely restricted and all players involved were banned for life.

In 1994 the World Series was canceled because the players' union went on strike against the club owners and the season was canceled in August.

Mode and game plan

The World Series is a best-of-seven series, which means that the first team to win four of the maximum seven games is the winner; other games will then no longer be played. Only in the years 1903 and from 1919 to 1921 was the game played in the best-of-nine mode, i.e. until the fifth victory of one of the two teams.

The games are scheduled for a period of nine days. First two games take place in the home stadium of one of the two teams, then up to three in the stadium of the other; if there is still no winner, the maximum two remaining games will take place in the first stadium. Up to and including 2006, the games took place from Saturday to the Sunday of the following week at the latest (with a free Monday and Friday as travel days between the venues); since 2007 it starts on a Wednesday. The leagues alternated annually in home rights for the first games until 2003, since then the first home right has gone to the league that won the MLB All-Star Game , an annual game in which a selection of the best players in each league compete against each other .

Due to the different handling of the designated hitter rule of the two leagues - in the American League a so-called designated hitter (substitute batsman) may be used on the offensive for the pitcher , in the National League this is not allowed - had to be for the World Series a compromise will be reached. Since 1986 this has provided that the rules of the home stadium apply; In an American League stadium it is played with and in a stadium of a National League team without a designated hitter . From 1975 to 1985, even years were played with designated hitters , and odd years without. The rule was introduced in the American League as early as 1973, but until 1975 the World Series was generally played without a designated hitter .

particularities

Until 1997, teams from the National and American League could only meet in the World Series, since then there have been interleague games , i.e. games between the leagues, in the regular season .

If at the World Series it comes to the fact that exactly the two New York teams face each other as finalists and consequently all games can be reached by subway , so the New York subway , then one speaks of the " Subway Series ". The last time this event occurred was in 2000 .

The often heard claim that the name of the series goes back to the newspaper The New York World , which hosted or at least sponsored the first World Series in the early 20th century, has proven to be a legend; there was no such sponsorship, so the name is definitely to be understood as a "World Cup", even if today only one Canadian team plays in the leagues involved in addition to the US teams (from 1977 to 2004 there were two Canadian teams) . So far there have only been two Canadian victories, in 1992 and 1993 the Toronto Blue Jays won .

In baseball, the success of professional club teams is the focus of interest, whereas country selections are not (in contrast to e.g. football ). The so-called World Baseball Classics , an unofficial world championship of the best national teams in the world , has existed since 2006 . Japan prevailed in the 2006 and 2009 events, the Dominican Republic won in 2013 and the USA in 2017.

See also

Web links