List of World Series champions
The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) and concludes the MLB postseason. First played in 1903, the World Series championship is determined through a best-of-seven playoff and is a contest between the champions of baseball's National League (NL) and American League (AL). Often referred to as the "Fall Classic", 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.
History of baseball in the United States
In 1858, in the Corona neighborhood of Queens (now part of New York City), at the Fashion Race Course, the first games of baseball to charge admission took place. The games, which took place between the all stars of Brooklyn, including players from the Atlantic, Excelsior, Putnam and Eckford clubs, and the All Stars of New York (Manhattan), including players from the New York Knickerbockers, Gothams, Eagles and Empire, are commonly believed to the first all star baseball games.