Pittsburgh Pirates

Major League Baseball has been the most prominent American sport for well over one hundred years. The World Series is an annual event, having been held almost every year since the beginning of the twentieth century – always with a solid attendance. The sport of baseball has so much history and you will understand the World Series better with this information.
What is the World Series? The World Series is the end of the annual major league baseball season. It is the official championship between the best players in the major league teams of both America and Canada.
When did the World Series start? The baseball World Series of baseball (as played by the National League and American League teams) began in 1903. There have been only two occasions (1904 and 1994) in which a boycott and strike ended the series. The name, “World Series” came from “World’s Championship Series”, which first started to be used in 1880’s. The name was shortened to “World’s Series” and then, later “World Series”. The champs of this tournament have been given the title “the World Champions” since 1903.
The concept of the tournament. The World Series has almost always been made up of a best-of-seven playoff series. The only times this differed was in 1903, 1919, 1920 and 1921. Those years featured a best-of-nine format. Whichever team wins four games in the baseball World Series is then awarded the World Series Trophy. Every team member is awarded personalized World Series rings. On top of that, whoever wins the World Series gets an enormous banner that bears their championship status. You will see this banner displayed at the home stadium of the winning team – so when you are at a baseball stadium, look up! You’ll see the banners from all the World Series’ hanging high above the field.
Only the best teams get to the playoffs. The scores received through the entire season matter in the selection process for the World Series. Only the best teams make it there, even though they all compete hard. he New York Yankees have achieved this in 39 of the 104 World Series – as of 2008 – more than any other team in the American and National league. It is the Chicago Cubs who have only ever won just one World Series – and were one of the first, back in 1908.
Baseball today. Baseball continues to grow in popularity. From the earliest recorded times, just barely ten teams tried to win the World Series trophy – and the number of major league baseball teams continues to increase. Today in 2009 there are around thirty MLB teams in both the American and National league.
This sport, which began as pure entertainment, now pays hundreds of thousands of dollars to players. At the top of the scale are the Yankees who paid out $209,081,579 in 2009, and at the bottom were the Marlins, with 2008 salaries of $21,836. There is not question that the better play a team has had in the World Series, the higher their salaries will be.