First World Series Played: Baseball's Grand Tradition

Eight games between two leagues that barely acknowledged each other's existence produced the template for American sports' most enduring championship. On October 1, 1903, the Boston Americans and the Pittsburgh Pirates met at Huntington Avenue Grounds for Game 1 of what newspapers dubbed the "World's Championship Series," the first postseason contest between the American League and the National League. The matchup almost didn't happen. The National League, established in 1876, considered the upstart American League — founded only in 1901 — an illegitimate rival that had poached its best players. NL owners had refused to recognize the AL's legitimacy through two bitter seasons of talent raids and legal threats. But Pittsburgh owner Barney Dreyfuss, whose Pirates had dominated the NL with a 91-49 record, saw a challenge worth taking. He wrote directly to Boston owner Henry Killilea proposing a best-of-nine postseason series. Killilea accepted. Pittsburgh appeared to hold every advantage. The Pirates boasted Honus Wagner, the game's greatest hitter, and a pitching staff anchored by Deacon Phillippe and Sam Leever. Boston's roster was thinner, built around pitcher Cy Young — already 36 years old — and outfielder-manager Jimmy Collins. When Pittsburgh took three of the first four games, the experiment seemed destined to confirm NL superiority. Then Boston's pitching took over. Bill Dinneen and Cy Young combined to win four of the final five games, with Dinneen throwing a complete-game shutout to clinch the series in Game 8. A crowd of 7,455 watched the finale in Boston, many of them members of a boisterous fan group called the Royal Rooters who had rattled Pittsburgh's players throughout the series by endlessly singing "Tessie." Dreyfuss, gracious in defeat, added his own share of gate receipts to the players' pool, meaning Pittsburgh's losers actually earned more per man than Boston's winners. The series generated roughly $50,000 in total revenue — modest even by 1903 standards — but proved that interleague competition could captivate a national audience. The World Series became an annual institution, interrupted only by a petty owner dispute in 1904, and has been played every year since 1905.