Primary Source: The First World Series
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Author: The Gazette (Colorado Springs, Colorado), Oct. 15, 1903
It’s hard to imagine an October without a World Series, but the series actually began in 1903. This newspaper article from The Gazette newspaper in Colorado Springs, Colorado, tells of the completion of that historic game. After reading the article, students will answer questions on the main idea, the details, and the language.
When the American League was formed in 1901, Major League Baseball was thrown into chaos, with players being “raided,” or stolen from teams and an intense rivalry between the National League and the American League. By 1903, however, the winners of the American League, the Boston Americans, and the winners of the National League, the Pittsburgh Pirates, agreed to have a post-season championship game series. This series is considered to be the first World Series. Boston won the series, 5-3, winning the last four games in a row.
The article refers to “Brush” who was John T. Brush, owner of the New York Yankees, and “McGraw” who was John McGraw, the player-manager of the New York Giants. The Chicago Cubs are a member of the National League, and Chicago has a nickname of the Windy City.
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BOSTON’S NEW CLAIM TO FAME.
THE GREATEST post-season series of games in the history of baseball is ended and to the Boston team of the American league belongs the undisputed tile of champions of the world.
The series contained not a few surprises for followers of baseball, over the country. Pittsburgh was a strong favorite, so greatly had the championship races in the National league impressed the minds of the “fans” with the Pirates.
Boston lost the first game of the series but then began to assert herself and the final deciding game of the series, played Tuesday in Boston, leaves no doubt as to the merit of the victory. Dineen, the Boston twirler, added to his laurels by striking out that knight of the stick, Hans Wagner, at a critical stage of the game.
The series goes a long way to prove the general all-around superiority of the American league over its older rival, the National league.
Except in Chicago, where the Cubs had somewhat the better of the controversy for the honors of the Windy city, the American league teams have shown up in a better light in post-season series than their opponents of the Nationals.
It is to be regretted that Brush and McGraw did not get together for a series for the championship of New York. Games between the two rivals of the metropolis would have attracted almost as much attention as that between the champions of the two leagues.
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