America’s Favorite Pastime
Unique Moments in the History of the World Series
the two teams. The series would resume again in 1905 after new agreements between the American and National leagues. Then, in 1994, a players’ strike over a salary cap would mark the second time in the league’s history when a World Series champion wasn’t crowned. Beginning on Aug. 12, the strike lasted through April 2, 1995. The First (and Second) Canadian Champions The U.S.-based MLB expanded into Canada in the 1960s with the Montreal Expos. Today, the Toronto Blue Jays are the only Canadian- based team in the MLB, and since joining the league in 1977, they have made their own mark on America’s favorite pastime. The Blue Jays became the only team in MLB history from outside the U.S. to win the World Series in 1992. They would do it once again in 1993 and are still the only team from outside the country to win the series — twice, for that matter. November Baseball Occasionally, the calendar gives us a gift — baseball in November. This has happened a handful of times and each for varying reasons. In 2001, the World Series was bumped into November as the result of postponed games following the 9/11 terrorist attacks and a long championship series. A late start and another long series caused the 2009 World Series to also bump into November.
October is the season of pumpkins, falling leaves, and baseball. Each October, we watch the dramatic ending to one of professional sports’ longest-running games, and every championship adds one more riveting story to the long history of baseball. Yet, there has never been a Major League Baseball (MLB) season that can compare to the 2020 COVID-19 season. This year’s competitors will square off at a neutral site in the World Series for the first time since the 1940s, following an abbreviated season that began in July. As we prepare for the MLB’s big event in Arlington, Texas, let’s take a look back at other years when the World Series was anything but normal. The YearsWithout a Champion In 1903, the Boston Pilgrims defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates to win the first World Series championship. However, they wouldn’t have a chance to defend their title the following year. The New York Giants refused to play the Pilgrims in the World Series over a rivalry between
The Night Martians Invaded New Jersey Orson Welles Recounts ‘The War of the Worlds’
On the evening of Oct. 30, 1938, an eloquent voice graced the airwaves in New Jersey:
this was a work of fiction. The panic, it seemed, was growing as the Martians “approached” New York. A little later that night, police showed up at the studio with the intent of shutting the whole thing down. The next day, the story broke across the country — newspapers reported on mass hysteria and stories poured out that the nation had erupted in panic. However, as we now know, the extent of the panic was exaggerated. In fact, the program didn’t even have very many listeners that night, and most who had tuned in were aware they were listening to a radio play rather than a news broadcast. American University media historian W. Joseph Campbell, who researched the broadcast in the 2000s, found that while there had been some panic, most listeners simply enjoyed the show. It turns out the person who was the most frightened was Welles himself who thought his career had come to an end.
“We now know in the early years of the 20th century, this world was being watched closely by intelligences greater than man’s, and yet as mortal as his own. We now know as human beings busied themselves about their various concerns, they were scrutinized and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinize the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water …” And so began Orson Welles’ classic radio broadcast, a retelling of H.G. Wells’ “The War of the Worlds.” Peppered in the retelling were fictional news bulletins informing the public of an alien invasion. Martians had arrived in New Jersey! Some listeners, who had missed the fact that this was a retelling of “The War of the Worlds,” assumed the news bulletins were the real thing. Frenzied, they called local police, newspapers, and radio stations hoping for more information about the invasion. What were they supposed to do?
Higher-ups at the CBS radio studio where Welles delivered the live reading called and told him he needed to stop and remind listeners that
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