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Baseball's World Series (1903-1922): Topics in Chronicling America

The annual championship series of Major League Baseball began in 1903. This guide provides access to material related to “Baseball's World Series” in the Chronicling America digital collection of historic newspapers.

Introduction

"Babe Ruth himself! The crowd gave this Navy Yard Yankee a big hand when he got a single." October 5, 1922 The Washington Times (Washington, DC), Image 18. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers.

The competitive world of baseball, "America's favorite pastime" grew in the early 1900s through the creation of baseball's annual World Series competition. This competition brought the American and National Baseball Leagues together and gave fans and spectators the opportunity to see who really were the World Series Champions. Read more about it!

The information in this guide focuses on primary source materials found in the digitized historic newspapers from the digital collection Chronicling America.

The timeline below highlights important dates related to this topic and a section of this guide provides some suggested search strategies for further research in the collection.

Timeline

September 1903 The compromise known as the "National Agreement" resolves the conflict between the rival American and National Leagues and lays the foundation for the Modern World Series that continues to this day.
October 1904 Despite the National Agreement, John T. Brush, president of the National League champion New York Giants, refuses to compete against the American League and the World Series is cancelled.
January 1905 John T. Brush proposes formal rules for annual World Series Contests.