World Series is a series of games that determines the annual champion of Major League Baseball (MLB). The World Series is played between the champions of MLB’s two leagues in the United States and Canada, the American League and the National League. The series is held each autumn following the completion of the regular season, which runs from late March or early April to late September or early October.
The World Series is one of the world’s most popular sports events. It has been played every year starting in 1903, except for 1904 and 1994. In 1904, the owner of the National League champions—the New York Giants—refused to play the American League champions—the Boston Americans—whom he considered to be an inferior team. In 1994, the World Series was canceled because of a players’ strike.
The series captures the interest of millions of sports fans. Television and radio stations from throughout the United States and around the world cover the games. The end of the series sets off a wild celebration in the city that wins the championship.
The World Series is the last in a sequence of four playoff rounds involving six teams from each of the two major leagues. In each league, the qualifying teams include the three division winners and three wild card teams—that is, the three teams in the league with the next best regular-season records.
In each league, the wild card team with the worst regular-season record plays a three-game series against the division winner with the worst regular-season record. At the same time, the other two wild card teams play each other in a three-game series. The winner of each of those three-game series advances to play one of the other two division winners in a five-game series. The two winning teams then play each other in a seven-game series called the League Championship Series (LCS). In each league, the LCS winner claims that league’s “pennant.” The two pennant winners move on to play each other in the best-of-seven-games World Series.
