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| Kirk Gibson's two-run homer in the ninth inning of the first game of the 1988 World Series gave the underdog Dodgers a stunning 5-4 victory over Oakland. |
World Series Summary
Before the birth of the current World Series, matching the champions of the American and National Leagues, there were other postseason championships that took place as early as 1884. These were World Series, too, matching the champion of the National League against that of the American Association, but when the latter circuit folded in 1891 there was no interleague postseason contest until the warring AL and NL came to a peace agreement in 1903.
The World Series is Don Larsen's perfect game. The Babe's called shot. Willie Mays robbing Vic Wertz.
It's Bob Gibson fanning 17. Kirk Gibson making us believe what we just saw. Willie McCovey's last-out line drive.
It's also Enos Slaughter's mad dash. Bill Wambsganss' unassisted triple play. Christy Mathewson's three shutouts in six days.
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And who can forget Reggie Jackson going back-to-back-to-back? Carlton Fisk waving it fair? Or Joe Carter connecting off the Wild Thing?
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| Carlton Fisk slams a 12th-inning home run to give Boston the sixth game of the 1975 World Series. |
The Fall Classic has provided us with many magical moments. The first World Series, in 1903, was a best-of-nine affair arranged between the champions of the older National League (founded in 1876) and the American League. The AL's Boston Pilgrims upset the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5 games to 3.
The 1904 NL champion New York Giants refused to play Boston the following year, so there was no Series. But the league presidents smoothed out their differences, and the Series resumed in 1905, when the Giants agreed to play Philadelphia in a best-of-7 game series.
Since then the World Series has followed the best-of-seven format -- except from 1919-21, when it returned briefly to best-of-nine.
The rest, as they say, is history. Catch all of it here -- every miraculous moment -- from Bill Mazeroski's homer to Larsen's perfect game to Bill Buckner's bungle.
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