History of the MLB Postseason (Part I: Classic World Series Era - 1903-1968)

As a sports fan, I've always been fascinated by Major League Baseball's postseason format, and among the reasons why is because of how small it is. Out of North America's four main sports leagues, MLB has the smallest playoff field. While the NBA and NHL let in 16 teams, and the NFL lets in 14, MLB puts 10 teams in the postseason, but during a six decade period, it was just two. Here's the story regarding the World Series.

The World Series is often known as the Fall Classic, because it's the fall season's biggest sports event. Since 1903, the World Series has pitted the American League champion against the National League champion; however, before the modern era began, there was something similar to World Series play taking place in the late 1800s. From 1882 until 1890, a postseason series took place between the champion of the National League, and the champion of the American Association, which predated the American League. The AA ended up folding in 1890, and it was 11 years later in 1901 that the American League was established. Two years after that, the first World Series took place.

Now, during this period, the American League and the National League each had eight teams, but at the time, they were mostly in cities east of the Mississippi River. The American League teams were as follows: the New York Yankees, the Boston Red Sox, the Philadelphia Athletics, the Cleveland Indians, the Chicago White Sox, the Detroit Tigers, the St. Louis Browns, and the Washington Senators. The National League teams were as follows: the Brooklyn Dodgers, the New York Giants, the Philadelphia Phillies, the St. Louis Cardinals, the Chicago Cubs, the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Cincinnati Reds, and the Boston Braves. Each of the leagues were bunched up, with the pennants being awarded to the teams who finished in first place in each league.

The very first World Series took place in 1903, with the Boston Red Sox (then known as the Boston Americans) defeating the Pittsburgh Pirates five games to three. There was no World Series in the following year, because the owner of the New York Giants (who won the National League pennant that year) refused to play against a team from "an inferior league." The 2nd World Series took place in 1905, with the Giants winning four games to one over the Philadelphia Athletics; this was the first best-of-seven World Series. The only other best-of-nine World Series were played in 1919 (the infamous "Black Sox Series"), 1920 (the first one won by the Cleveland Indians), and 1921 (the New York Yankees' first of 40 appearances)--none of the four best-of-nine Series ever reached a Game Nine. Two years later in 1923, the Yankees defeated the Giants four games to two, winning the Fall Classic for the first of 27 times in the team's history.

This era saw some memorable moments; for one, Game Four of the 1929 World Series between the Cubs and Athletics saw the former up 8-0 entering the seventh inning...where the A's put up a 10-spot and won 10-8 to go up 3-1. The A's won Game Five to take the whole thing. 1932 was known for Babe Ruth's "Called Shot" home run in the Series between the Yankees and the Cubs, and then there's 1945. There's a theme in this paragraph, you say. Well, you're right. The Cubs won back-to-back World Series in 1907 and 1908, but they were still looking for another one. After failing for over three decades, 1945 saw them against the Detroit Tigers, and during Game Seven in Wrigley, a Cubs fan who had a goat with him ended up ejected, but before leaving, he said that there would never be another World Series game played at Wrigley. Sure enough, after the Tigers won Game Seven, the Cubs would have to wait 71 years to win another pennant, and it turned into their first championship in 108 years.

In 1946, history was made. In the National League, the St. Louis Cardinals and the Brooklyn Dodgers finished with identical 96-58 records at the end of the regular season. This forced MLB's first tiebreaker to be played, and at that time, the American and National Leagues had different rules. The National League tiebreakers were played in a best-of-three series format, while the American League tiebreakers were played in a single game. Regarding the 1946 NL pennant, the Cardinals won in a two game sweep, and went on to defeat the Boston Red Sox in the Fall Classic. The first American League tiebreaker took place two years later between the Red Sox and Indians, with that year featuring the possibility of an all-Boston World Series between the Red Sox and the Braves. However, the Indians won 8-3 and went on to defeat the Braves in the World Series--their last World Championship to date.

In this era, only three other tiebreakers took place; all in the National League. The most famed one took place in 1951 between the Giants and Dodgers, and it ended with Bobby Thomson's immortal "Shot Heard 'Round the World," which won the pennant for the Giants--who were defeated in the Fall Classic by the Yankees. The remaining tiebreakers took place in 1959 and 1962. The pic in this story is a program from the 1956 World Series, and that series saw history made: Don Larsen pitching the only perfect game in World Series history in Game 5, needing 97 pitches to do it. The Yankees won that series over the then-defending champion Dodgers in seven games.

The 1950s began a wave of relocation and expansion, with the St. Louis Browns moving to Baltimore and becoming the Orioles, the Athletics moved from Philadelphia to Kansas City, and later to Oakland, and the Braves left Boston for Milwaukee, and later moved to Atlanta in 1966. The most known move was the Dodgers and Giants leaving New York for California, with the Dodgers moving to Los Angeles while the Giants went to San Francisco. The 1960s began with the Washington Senators moving to Minneapolis and becoming the Minnesota Twins, though 1961 saw a second Washington Senators team added in the American League, as well as the Los Angeles Angels. The Yankees stood as New York's only team until 1962, when the Mets joined the National League, with the Houston Astros (originally the Colt .45s) joining that same year. By the 1968 season, which ended with the Detroit Tigers winning the World Series in seven games over the St. Louis Cardinals, MLB had 20 teams (10 in each league), but the following year would see a huge change in baseball.

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