Of course, the challenge for teams in Major League Baseball is that there isn’t just one ultimate series that matters; when it comes to getting to the baseball World Series, the best team from the American League and the Best Team from the National League both need to earn their spots in the championship series.
In both the American League and the National League, throughout the season all of the teams are competing to establish a record that will help them to get closer to the baseball World Series. The top four teams of the American League compete to advance to the baseball World Series – the top team plays the wild card (fourth place) team, the second and third place teams play, competing in best of 5 series to determine which teams advance to another five game series meant to determine the American League champion team. The same breakdown happens among the National League teams.
Playoff season ultimately brings together the championship team of the National League and of the American League to compete for the “World Champions” title in the baseball World Series – a game that takes place at the end of October. This has been the structure since 1994, and the determination of whether the National League team or the American League team gains home field advantage is made during the All-Star game mid-season.
Of course, while this structure was adopted by Major League Baseball for the baseball World Series in 1994, the World Series was not held that year as there had been a strike. 1994, however, was not the only year in the history of the baseball World Series that did not see the championship games played. Since the baseball World Series was first played with a match-up of the National League Pittsburgh Pirates and the American League team from Boston in 1903, a number of series has been missed.
In 1904, the World Series was not played because of the assertion that American League teams, because they were new, were simply inferior. A champion was not crowned in 1919 because the Chicago White Sox team had made an effort to fix the outcome of the game. 1989 led to an abbreviated baseball World Series tournament as both teams were from the area of San Francisco and a major earthquake occurred and disrupted the championship.
For baseball fans, the baseball World Series games are among those that are most watched and most looked forward to. Those who are passionate about baseball are often going to watch the series whether or not their favorite teams are involved simply because the series is a match-up of the best of the best teams in the nation.
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