1903 World Series: Changed Baseball Forever

It's October one, nighteen three. Everyone is a buzz as baseball has risen in popularity decade after decade, becoming the most popular sport in America. But we never knew who the best team was until two leagues rose to prominence, the National League and the American League. He decided to put their best against each other in a series of games to determine who had the best team. It was the World Champion in Baseball, giving us the very first World Series, showcasing each team's unique features and giving us our very first World Champion in baseball. Towards today, as we dive into this incredible series and what it's meant to the game today today on Daily Sports. History, Welcome to eight fours History, your guide because I used to spend my summers as. A catcher in a little league in one hundred degree heat. And today's trivia question to listen out for is who hit the very first home run in World Series history? The beginning. So to understand how we got to this series, we first have to go back in history. See, professional baseball didn't start to the eighteen sixties, with the Cincinnati Red Stockings being the very first professional team and more teams started to pop up, including more leagues, and multiple leagues would pop up and fade away, but two leagues started to rise up. The National League of Professional Baseball Club's long name ficially shortened down to the National League, was founded in February of eighteen seventy six. To saying anything with an eighteen the beginning means it was a long time ago. It founded in New York and was championed by William Hubler and Albert Spoulding of the Spaulding Brothers were the major players were in sports mirror Rebelia, and it was made to replace the National Association, who lacked authority and had corruption going on, and so it took its place as a better lead. The new league saw more professionalism and exclusive franchises for larger cities, and it centralized its authority over the clubs, requiring each team to honor its scheduling commitments. So it really was a new way of a free fall, really allowing these teams to have a manager supervisor at guiding light that they had to follow. It started with eight teams, with Boston, Chicago, Saint Louis, Philadelphia, New York, Brooklyn, Cincinnati, and Louisville really focused on the East coast. It'd be another seventy years before we start to move to the West coast. And they had their very first tennant, which we still use that term to day in eighteen seventy six, won by Chicago, created a blueprint for future leagues popping up. Now there were multiple other leagues, and one of them that came just a few years later, the American League, was a Western league in eighteen ninety three, and it was aimed to challenge the dominance of the NL. It aggressively would sign top players from the NL, gaining support from cities, from fans, and legitimizing their league. And they really focused on cities that were ignored or vacated by the National League. And by nineteen oh one there was a quote baseball war between these two leagues as they were fighting for players, which was great for players, which meant their salaries increased exponentially for the time. It really gave us the dream of being a professional athlete because you couldn't make good money. And it was because of these challenging leagues. And they went back and forth between contracts and lawsuits, and then in nineteen oh three, both leagues got together to end the challenges they were having. Helped being stabilized them each other financially, as the more you spend eventually that money does run out. And Barney Dreyfuss, who owned the pitburd Pirates, and Henry Khalia, who owned the Boston Americans the American League, spearheaded negotiations between the two leagues and they got together and they had an agreement in place in the hostility and create a truce laying down groundworks for a postseason competition between the two leagues, essentially making them a larger league for this one goal, it was a championship challenge. Now, originally they wanted to have eleven games, but that seems like a lot of games between the two so they decided let's cut it down to just still a lot of games for us today. But the announcement of this series was huge in the baseball world across America. Fans were excited at this inner league format in a chance to see who was truly the best league. US talk about the Pittsburgh Pirates at this time. They were led by Hall of Famer Horace Wagner, which we know mainly through his baseball court, which is one of the most valuable baseball courts ever and one of the greatest shortstops to ever live. He was the team's star, but due to injuries, he did not have much effect on the series. This series really came down to pitching, which they were led by Deacon Phillippy and Sam Lever, and the Boston Americans, who would eventually become the Boston Red Sox, were led by legendary pitcher Cy Young as well as pitcher Bill Diene. And you have to remember why pitching was so important in this era was because it was the dead ball era the moment, so everyone's excited for this game. It's the first game basing officanci's two major leagues, and the Pirates jump out quick. They get four quick runs and capitalize on errors that were made across the Americans as Tommy Leitch rips a ground rule triple into a sea of fans because there was no wall. Instead, they had fans line up behind a rope and the rule was if the ball went over, there's a home run, but if it rolled into the crowd, there was a ground rule triple, which they would later change to a ground rule double. But we're on a ground triple and we have walls. Now things change, and before you know it, Pittsford has a lead seven to three. Then Jimmy Seabring hammers the very first World Series home run, and Pittsburgh's ace, Deacon Phillippy, was unbeatable and gets the win against legendary pitcher Cy Young as Pirates lead. Now Game two Boston has a comeback again. The game is in Boston and Boston puts out Bill Diny, who pitches a three hit shutout and brings the series to a one one one high. Now the next game comes back. Deacon Phillippy of the Pirates pitches on just one day rest, something that's heard of in today's baseball, and he holds Boston to just four hits as the Pirates retake the lead two to one in the series. Now Game four through six are played in Pittsburgh and Game four the Pirates. The Pirates come out swinging as Tommy Leach drives in three runs, Horneus Wagner and Ginger Boumint each collect three hits to give them a three to one lead in the series. Now, remember this is to nine, so even if they won the next game and one four, they have to get five to win the series. Game five comes up and Cy Young is back on the mound and he shows his dominance that he had throughout his career and allows only six hits and it was enough to shut down Pittsburgh and get another win in the series two to three. In Game six, Bill and I of Boston has a complete game victory, shutting down the Pirates again, giving them a three to three tie. So now after six games, it's all tied up. It's now a three game series. The next to win two games wins it all. So Game seven comes and the teams Boston jumps out to an early lead as Cy Young takes the mound, showing his poise and is able to maintain this lead and give Boston another victory. Now they lead the series four to three, just one game needed to win it all. Game eight comes back to Boston with everything on the line. The Pirates lose. That's it, they lose the series. Bill and I of the Boston Americans takes the mound and steals the spotlight for one of the most legendary pitchers in the game, Cy Young, as he pitches his second shutout of the series, giving the Americans a three zero win to clinch the very first World Series five to three, after Deacon Philippy had pitched his fifth complete game for the Pirates, giving it his all, but it wasn't enough the fallout so the Boston Americans were part of the American League, and this really legitimized the American League, gave it credibility and prestige, and provided the al with more backing to help compete with the more established National League, and created enthusiasm in demand from fans for future Championship matchups as the series drew massive crowds in each location, attracting over sixteen thousand fans, which is a huge amount back then. But even with all this, there was still no World Series in nineteen oh four due to the New York Giants, at the time was a baseball team, not the football team, refused to play the Ale champion and his backlass led to fans in each league establishing in nineteen oh five every year they would have a championship between the American League and the National League the Pirates. The Pirates remained competitive even though they lost the very first World Series, and in nineteen oh nine they would return to the World Series and win their very first championship defeating the Detroit Tigers, led by stellar play from their Hall of Famer Hornis Wagner. They add an additional World Series in nineteen twenty five, nineteen sixty, nineteen seventy one, in nineteen seventy nine. However, after the seventy nine season, they had a long drought throughout the eighties of having struggles, but they have bounced back to province in the nineteen nineties and in the two thousands to be a competitive and a staple in the major leagues. Now. As for the Boston Americans, they would actually go on to change their name in nineteen oh eight to the Boston Red Sox, establishing themselves as a powerhouse. They went on to win the World Series in nineteen twelve, nineteen fifteen, nineteen sixteen, and nineteen eighteen, and then we all know what happened. There was a major drought of World Series wins for over eighty years until two thousand and four. But ever since the name changed to the Boston Red Sox, they've stayed at Finway and had a lot more success in the World Series after their long long drought. It's amazing that over one hundred years previously, these two teams competed against each other in a World Series for a first of its kind. And both of these are staples and American fixtures in sports. When you say the Pirates, people know you're talking about the Pittsburgh Pirates in baseball. When you say the Red Sox, they know you're talking about the Boston Red Sox. Yes, not the Americans, but the Red Sox name is as American as they come. I want to thank you for listening to today's Daily Sports History. If you like this, please I would love for you to take a little bit of time out of your day to go wherever you're listening, leave a review, leave a five star rating, whatever you can do, and we'll see you on the next one. And today's trivia question, who hit the very first home run in World Series history? And the answer is Jimmy Seabring, who hit it in the World Series.