World Series Baseball
Ahh... Fall.. the beautiful foliage, nippy weather..and the crack of the bat as America settles in front of the television to watch the World Series.
Every October for more than 100 years, the "fall classic" or World Series has featured a postseason playoff between two baseball leagues: the National League and the American League. The playoffs began in 1903 and has mostly followed a format of best-of-seven games.
Baseball is full of trivia and historical buffs, who can recite great moments in World Series history like it was yesterday.
One sad moment: the 1919 series between the Reds and the White Sox was marred by the Black Sox scandal, when players conspired with gamblers to throw the series.
History buffs can still replay the 1953 defeat of the Brooklyn Dodgers by the New York Yankees, despite Dodgers pitcher Carl Erskine setting a new Series record by striking out 14 Yankees in Game 2.
The Yankees have consistently dominated the series. They set a record of 10 consecutive games won in the World Series in 2000, and before that, held the record of 9 consecutive victories in the 1930s.
If you ask a baseball trivia buff about the longest game in the World Series, they can tell you: game 3 in the 2005 series, between the Chicago White Sox and the Houston Astros. That game took 5 hours and 41 minutes.
Although tradition is honored in the World Series, there have been some changes in the series over the years. Major League Baseball introduced the wild-card option in 1994, giving a non-division winner with the best record from each league a chance to get into the series.
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