Dugout Notes
SUPER SPECIAL
The World Series Curse
The World Series. The World Series is baseball’s big finish each year. It’s a series of up to seven games played between the two best teams in baseball. One team is from the American League, and the other team is from the National League. The World Series is played in October and is split between the home fields of the two competing teams. The first team to win four games takes the World Series.
World Series winners. So far, the team with the most World Series wins is the New York Yankees. Through 2015, the Yankees had a total of twenty-seven World Series wins. The St. Louis Cardinals have the next most World Series wins, with eleven. Between 1920 and 1964, the Yankees played in twenty-nine World Series and won twenty of them. They even won it five times in a row, starting in 1949.
The Billy Goat Curse. Some people do really believe that the Billy Goat Curse is responsible for the Cubs’ bad luck over the years. It started in game four of the 1945 World Series. William Sianis, the owner of the Billy Goat Tavern in Chicago, tried to bring good luck to the Cubs by taking his pet billy goat to the game. He even bought a ticket for the goat. But the ticket takers wouldn’t let the goat in. The Cubs owner wouldn’t let him in, either. He said the goat stank! Sianis stomped off with his goat and cursed the team. According to legend, he said, “The Cubs ain’t going to win no more. The Cubs will never win a World Series so long as the goat is not allowed in Wrigley Field.”
The Curse of the Bambino. The Red Sox had their own curse. After the Red Sox sold Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees in 1919, they started to lose important games. They also didn’t win a World Series for many, many years (eighty-six, in fact). But the Yankees went on to win many World Series. Some people said the Red Sox were cursed because they had sold one of the best players of all time to their rivals. To learn more, read Babe Ruth and the Baseball Curse.
Lena Blackburne Rubbing Mud. Baseball teams don’t use new baseballs right out of the box. Instead, before each game, teams rub new baseballs in mud! The mud is called Lena Blackburne Rubbing Mud. It comes from a secret place in New Jersey. The mud takes the shiny gloss off the white leather and makes the balls easier for batters to see. To learn more, read Miracle Mud: Lena Blackburne and the Secret Mud That Changed Baseball.
First World Series. The first World Series was held in 1903. The Pittsburgh Pirates played the Boston Americans (who later became the Boston Red Sox). Boston won the series.
Getting there. Originally the team with the best record in each league (National and American) went to the World Series. But since 1969 there have been playoffs (the American League Championship Series and the National League Championship Series) to determine which two teams will play in the World Series.
The American League is ahead. Overall, the American League has won more World Series than the National League. As of 2015, the American League has sixty-four wins, and the National League has forty-seven.
Trophy. The winner of the World Series gets the Commissioner’s Trophy. It has a big round base with tall gold flags that ring the edges. The flags represent each of the major-league teams.
Earthquake. There was even an earthquake during the World Series. On October 17, 1989, the San Francisco Giants were playing the Oakland Athletics in San Francisco. It was just before the start of game three when an earthquake struck. The Loma Prieta earthquake was strong—it caused the stadium to move back and forth. The quake knocked out power and caused damage to the upper deck of Candlestick Park. The game had to be stopped and played ten days later.
Heading north. The World Series was played outside of the United States for the first time in 1992, when the Toronto Blue Jays from Canada played the Atlanta Braves. That truly made it a World Series.
Home-field advantage. The World Series is up to seven games long. The first team to win four games wins the series. If the series goes to seven games, the teams play four games at one stadium and three at the other. That means one team gets to play an extra game at their home field, where the cheering fans may give the home team an advantage. The teams split up the games so that each team will have some home games at the start. The first two games are played on one team’s field. Then the series moves to the other team’s stadium for the next three games. If there isn’t a winner, the games return to the first team’s stadium for the last two games. The team (or league) that gets the home-field advantage is decided by the All-Star Game in July. For example, if the National League team wins the All-Star Game, the National League team in the World Series gets home-field advantage.
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The World Series Curse Page 5