ST. LOUIS — How about those St. Louis Cardinals?
They had their fans on the edge of their seats on Thursday before pulling off a win in Game 1 of the NLDS.
They’re now just 10 wins away from winning the World Series.
But it didn’t always take so many victories to become a champion. How did the battle to be crowned the best begin?
Let’s take it back to 1903, the first World Series game. It was the Pittsburgh Pirates against the Boston Americans – now known as the Red Sox. Boston won that game.
How has the World Series changed since then?
Before 1903, there was some disorganization. The National League existed, then the American League came around but didn’t last long.
Fast forward to 1903 – the two leagues came to terms and the first World Series was played.
It was very different from what baseball is like these days. Prior to 1969, the teams who took their leagues met up for the World Series. There was no championship series.
That started in 1969 – when the National and American leagues split into two divisions each, east and west.
The top in each division in the league played each other first before going on to the World Series.
It’s gotten a bit more complicated as each league now has three divisions, and the wild card playoff was added to help even it all out.
But hey, that means more fall baseball to watch!
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