Part of a series on the |
Major League Baseball postseason |
---|
Wild Card |
Division Series |
League Championship Series |
World Series |
Teams |
The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) and concludes the MLB postseason. First played in 1903,[1] the World Series championship is a best-of-seven playoff and is a contest between the champions of baseball's National League (NL) and American League (AL).[2] Often referred to as the "Fall Classic",[3] the modern World Series has been played every year since 1903 with two exceptions: in 1904, when the NL champion New York Giants declined to play the AL champion Boston Americans; and in 1994, when the series was canceled due to the players' strike.[1][2][4][5]
The best-of-seven style has been the format of all World Series except in 1903, 1919, 1920, and 1921, when the winner was determined through a best-of-nine playoff.[1][2] Although the large majority of contests have been played entirely during the month of October, a small number of Series have also had games played during September and November. The Series-winning team is awarded the Commissioner's Trophy.[6] Players, coaches and others associated with the team are generally given World Series rings to commemorate their victory; however, they have received other items such as pocket watches and medallions in the past.[7] The winning team is traditionally invited to the White House to meet the President of the United States.
A total of 116 Series have been contested, with the AL champion winning 66 and the NL champion winning 50. The New York Yankees of the AL have played in 40 World Series through 2020, winning 27 — the most championship appearances and most victories by any team in the four major North American professional sports leagues. The Los Angeles Dodgers of the NL have the most losses with 14, while the Yankees have the most losses among AL teams with 13. The St. Louis Cardinals have won 11 championships, the most championships among NL clubs and second-most all-time behind the Yankees, and have made 19 total appearances, third-most among NL clubs.[3] The Los Angeles Dodgers have represented the NL the most World Series with 21 appearances.
The Seattle Mariners are the only current MLB franchise that has never appeared in a World Series; the San Diego Padres, Colorado Rockies, Texas Rangers, Tampa Bay Rays, and Milwaukee Brewers have all played in the Series but have never won it. The Toronto Blue Jays are the only franchise from outside the United States to appear in and win a World Series, winning in 1992 and 1993. The Houston Astros are the only franchise to have represented both the NL (2005) and the AL (2017 and 2019), winning the Series in 2017. The current World Series champions are the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Numbers in parentheses in the table are World Series appearances as of the date of that World Series, and are used as follows:
In the sortable table below, teams are ordered first by number of wins, then by number of appearances, and finally by year of first appearance. In the "Season(s)" column, bold years indicate winning appearances.
The following are the 20 matchups of teams that have occurred two or more times in the World Series. All teams that have participated in these were "Classic Eight" members of either the American or National League; no expansion team (created in 1961 or later) has faced an opponent more than once in a World Series.
Presented content of the Wikipedia article was extracted in 2021-06-13 based on https://en.wikipedia.org/?curid=7599168