The modern World Series, the current championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) between teams of the National League and the American League, began in 1903, and was established as an annual event in 1905. This article discusses major-league champions before 1905, including championship series contested in that era, primarily between teams of the National League and the American Association.
Before the formation of the American Association (AA), which debuted in 1882, there were no playoff rounds—all championships went to the team with the best record at the end of the season.
In the initial season of the National League (NL) in 1876, there was controversy as to which team was the champion: the Chicago White Stockings, who had the best overall record (52–14), or the St. Louis Brown Stockings (45–19), who were the only team to have a winning record against every other franchise in the league. The teams agreed to play a five-game "Championship of the West" series, won by St. Louis, four games to one.
Beginning with an exhibition series after the American Association's birth in 1882, a championship series between the NL and AA regular-season champions was promoted and referred to as the "World's Championship Series" (WCS), or "World's Series" for short; however, these series are not officially recognized by Major League Baseball as part of World Series history.[1] Though early publications, such as Ernest Lanigan's Baseball Cyclopedia and Hy Turkin and S. C. Thompson's Encyclopedia of Baseball, listed the 19th-century games on an equal basis with those of the 20th century, Sporting News publications about the World Series, which began in the 1920s, ignored the 19th-century games, as did most publications about the Series after 1960. MLB, in general, regards 19th-century events as a prologue to the modern era of baseball, with the birth of the present American League in 1901.
In the second year of the WCS, a dispute in the 1885 series concerned Game 2, which was forfeited by the St. Louis Browns (AA) to the Chicago White Stockings (NL) when the Browns pulled their team off the field protesting an umpiring decision. The managers, Cap Anson (St. Louis) and Charles Comiskey (Chicago), initially agreed to disregard the game. When St. Louis won the final game and an apparent series championship, three games to two, Chicago owner Albert Spalding overruled his manager and declared that he wanted the forfeit counted. The result of a tied WCS was that neither team got the prize money that had been posted by the owners before the series (and was returned to them after they both agreed it was a tie).
Following the collapse of the AA in 1891, four of its clubs (Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Brooklyn) were admitted to the NL. The league championship was awarded in 1892 by a playoff between half-season champions. This scheme was abandoned after one season. Beginning in 1893—and continuing until divisional play was introduced in 1969—the pennant was awarded to the first-place club in the standings at the end of the season. For four seasons, the pennant winner played the runners-up in the postseason championship series called the Temple Cup. A second attempt at this format was the Chronicle-Telegraph Cup series in 1900.
Notes:
| National Association of Base Ball Players | National Association of Professional Base Ball Players | ||||||
| Year | Champions | Year | Champions | Year | Champions | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1857 | Atlantic (of Brooklyn) | 1864 | Atlantic | Athletic (of Philadelphia) | |||
| 1858[2] | Mutual (of New York) | 1865 | Atlantic | Boston ("Red Stockings") | |||
| 1859 | Atlantic | 1866 | Atlantic | Boston | |||
| 1860 | Atlantic | 1867 | Union of Morrisania | Boston | |||
| 1861 | Atlantic | 1868 | Mutual | ||||
| 1862 | Eckford of Brooklyn | Atlantic | The "White Stockings" became (1907) the Cubs, while the "Red Stockings" were later (1912) named the Braves. | ||||
| 1863 | Eckford | Chicago ("White Stockings") | |||||
Notes:
| Year | Winning (or tying) team | Manager | Season | Games | Losing (or tying) team | Manager | Season | Notes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| National League champions | |||||||||||||
| † | St. Louis Brown Stockings † | George McManus | 45-19 | bgcolor=eeeeee | 4–1 † | Chicago White Stockings † | Albert Spalding | 52-14 | † unofficial Championship of the West | ||||
| Boston Red Caps | Harry Wright | 31–17 | |||||||||||
| Boston Red Caps | Harry Wright | 41–19 | |||||||||||
| Providence Grays | George Wright | 55–23 | |||||||||||
| Chicago White Stockings | Cap Anson | 67–17 | |||||||||||
| Chicago White Stockings | Cap Anson | 56–28 | |||||||||||
| National League versus American Association - exhibition | |||||||||||||
| bgcolor=honeydew | † | Chicago White Stockings (NL)† | Cap Anson | 55–29 | bgcolor=honeydew | 1 - 1 † | bgcolor=fdfef2 align=left | Cincinnati Red Stockings (AA) † | Pop Snyder | bgcolor=fdfef2 align=right | 55–25 | † (exhibition series) | |
| bgcolor=honeydew | † | Boston Beaneaters (NL) † | John Morrill | 63–35 | canceled † | bgcolor=fdfef2 align=left | Athletics (Philadelphia) (AA) † | Lon Knight | bgcolor=fdfef2 align=right | 66–32 | † (cancelled exhibition series) | ||
| National League versus American Association | |||||||||||||
| Providence Grays (NL) | Frank Bancroft | 84–28 | 3 - 0 | Metropolitans (New York) (AA) | Jim Mutrie | bgcolor=fdfef2 align=right | 75–32 | 1884 World Series | |||||
| bgcolor=honeydew | bgcolor=fdfef2 align=left | St. Louis Browns (AA) | Charles Comiskey | bgcolor=fdfef2 align=right | 79–33 | bgcolor=honeydew | 3 - 3 - (1)* | Chicago White Stockings (NL) | Cap Anson | 87–25 | bgcolor=honeydew | 1885 World Series | |
| bgcolor=fdfef2 align=left | St. Louis Browns (AA) | Charles Comiskey | bgcolor=fdfef2 align=right | 93–46 | 4 - 2 | Chicago White Stockings (NL) | Cap Anson | 90–34 | bgcolor=fdfef2 | 1886 World Series | |||
| Detroit Wolverines (NL) | Bill Watkins | 79–45 | 10 - 5 | bgcolor=fdfef2 align=left | St. Louis Browns (AA) | Charles Comiskey | bgcolor=fdfef2 align=right | 95–40 | 1887 World Series | ||||
| New York Giants (NL) | Jim Mutrie | 84–47 | 6 - 4 | bgcolor=fdfef2 align=left | St. Louis Browns (AA) | Charles Comiskey | bgcolor=fdfef2 align=right | 92–43 | 1888 World Series | ||||
| New York Giants (NL) | Jim Mutrie | 83–43 | 6 - 3 | bgcolor=fdfef2 align=left | Brooklyn Bridegrooms (AA) | Bill McGunnigle | bgcolor=fdfef2 align=right | 93–44 | 1889 World Series | ||||
| bgcolor=honeydew | bgcolor=fdfef2 align=left | Louisville Colonels (AA) | Jack Chapman | bgcolor=fdfef2 align=right | 88–44 | bgcolor=honeydew | 3 - 3 - (1)* | Brooklyn Bridegrooms (NL) | Bill McGunnigle | 86–43 | bgcolor=honeydew | 1890 World Series | |
| bgcolor=honeydew | Boston Beaneaters (NL) | Frank Selee | 87–51 | no Series | bgcolor=fdfef2 align=left | Boston Reds (AA) | Arthur Irwin | bgcolor=fdfef2 align=right | 93–42 | bgcolor=white | |||
| National League champions — (The 1894–1897 series were for the Temple Cup; the 1900 one for the Chronicle-Telegraph Cup) | |||||||||||||
| Boston Beaneaters | Frank Selee | 102–48 | 5 - 0 - 1 | Cleveland Spiders | Patsy Tebeau | 93–56 | |||||||
| Boston Beaneaters | Frank Selee | 86–44 | no Series | - | |||||||||
| New York Giants | John Montgomery Ward | 88–44 | 4 - 0 | Baltimore Orioles | Ned Hanlon | 89–39 | 1894 Temple Cup | ||||||
| Cleveland Spiders | Patsy Tebeau | 84–46 | 4 - 1 | Baltimore Orioles | Ned Hanlon | 87–43 | 1895 Temple Cup | ||||||
| Baltimore Orioles | Ned Hanlon | 90–39 | 4 - 0 | Cleveland Spiders | Patsy Tebeau | 80–48 | 1896 Temple Cup | ||||||
| Baltimore Orioles | Ned Hanlon | 90–40 | 4 - 1 | Boston Beaneaters | Frank Selee | 93–39 | 1897 Temple Cup | ||||||
| Boston Beaneaters | Frank Selee | 102–47 | no Series | ||||||||||
| Brooklyn Superbas | Ned Hanlon | 101–47 | no Series | ||||||||||
| Brooklyn Superbas | Ned Hanlon | 82–54 | 3 - 1 | Fred Clarke | 79–60 | 1900 Chronicle-Telegraph Cup | |||||||
| American League and National League champions | |||||||||||||
| bgcolor=white | bgcolor=fff4f4 align=left | Chicago White Sox (AL) | Clark Griffith | bgcolor=fff4f4 align=right | 83–53 | no Series | Pittsburgh Pirates (NL) | Fred Clarke | 90–49 | ||||
| bgcolor=white | bgcolor=fff4f4 align=left | Philadelphia Athletics (AL) | Connie Mack | bgcolor=fff4f4 align=right | 83–53 | no Series | Pittsburgh Pirates (NL) | Fred Clarke | 103–36 | ||||
| bgcolor=fff4f4 | bgcolor=fff4f4 align=left | Boston Americans (AL) | Jimmy Collins | bgcolor=fff4f4 align=right | 91–47 | 5 - 3 | Pittsburgh Pirates (NL) | Fred Clarke | 91–49 | bgcolor=fff4f4 | 1st modern World Series | ||
| bgcolor=white | bgcolor=fff4f4 align=left | Boston Americans (AL) | Jimmy Collins | bgcolor=fff4f4 align=right | 95–59 | no Series | New York Giants (NL) | John McGraw | 106–47 | bgcolor=white | |||
| |||||||||||||
| Team | Number | Years | Current status | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brooklyn Atlantics | 8 | 1857, 1859-1861, 1864-1866, 1869 | Defunct (1875) | |
| Brooklyn Eckfords | 2 | 1862-1863 | Defunct (1872) | |
| New York Mutuals | 2 | 1858, 1868 | Defunct (1876) | |
| Union of Morrisania | 1 | 1867 | Defunct (1873) | |
| Chicago White Stockings | 1 | 1870 | Chicago Cubs (NL) |
| Team | No. of championships | Years | Current status | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boston Red Stockings | 4 | 1872–1875 | Atlanta Braves (NL) | |
| Philadelphia Athletics | 1 | 1871 | Defunct (1876) |
| Team | No. of championships | Years | Current status | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boston Red Caps/Beaneaters | 7 | 1877–1878, 1883, 1891–1893, 1898 | Atlanta Braves (NL) | |
| Chicago White Stockings | 6 | 1876, 1880–1882, 1885–1886 | Chicago Cubs (NL) | |
| New York Giants | 4 | 1888–1889, 1894, 1904 | San Francisco Giants (NL) | |
| Brooklyn Bridegrooms/Superbas | 3 | 1890, 1899–1900 | Los Angeles Dodgers (NL) | |
| Pittsburgh Pirates | 3 | 1901–1903 | Pittsburgh Pirates (NL) | |
| Providence Grays | 2 | 1879, 1884 | Defunct (1885) | |
| Baltimore Orioles | 2 | 1896–1897 | Defunct (1899) | |
| Detroit Wolverines | 1 | 1887 | Defunct (1888) | |
| Cleveland Spiders | 1 | 1895 | Defunct (1899) |
| Team | No. of championships | Years | Current status | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| St. Louis Browns | 4 | 1885–1888 | St. Louis Cardinals (NL) | |
| Cincinnati Red Stockings | 1 | 1882 | Cincinnati Reds (NL) | |
| Philadelphia Athletics | 1 | 1883 | Defunct (1890) | |
| New York Metropolitans | 1 | 1884 | Defunct (1887) | |
| Brooklyn Bridegrooms | 1 | 1889 | Los Angeles Dodgers (NL) | |
| Louisville Colonels | 1 | 1890 | Defunct (1899) | |
| Boston Reds | 1 | 1891 | Defunct (1891) |
| Team | No. of championships | Years | Current status | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boston Americans | 2 | 1903–1904 | Boston Red Sox (AL) | |
| Chicago White Sox | 1 | 1901 | Chicago White Sox (AL) | |
| Philadelphia Athletics | 1 | 1902 | Oakland Athletics (AL) |
| Team | No. of championships | Years | Current status | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York Giants (NL) | 2 | 1888–1889 | San Francisco Giants (NL) | |
| Providence Grays (NL) | 1 | 1884 | Defunct (1885) | |
| St. Louis Browns (AA) | 1 | 1886 | St. Louis Cardinals (NL) | |
| Detroit Wolverines (NL) | 1 | 1887 | Defunct (1888) | |
| Boston Beaneaters (NL) | 1 | 1892 | Atlanta Braves (NL) |