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During the month of October is:
The World Series
Also known as the Fall Classic, this
best-of-seven-games play-off is between the championship baseball teams
of the American and National Leagues. Games are played in the home
parks of the participating teams, but the Series is truly a national
event. For many it marks the spiritual end of summer and is a uniquely
American occasion—like the FOURTH OF JULY. At workplaces, Series betting pools are common; in the days before night telecasts, radios droned the play-by-play broadcasts.
The first World Series was played in 1903 between the Boston Red Sox
and the Pittsburgh Pirates. There was a lapse in 1904, but the Series
resumed in 1905 and has been played annually ever since. The seven-game
format was adopted in 1922.
Highlights of the Series mirror the symbolism of life that some see
in the game itself; they include moments of athletic perfection and of
human error, of drama and of scandal.
The scandal came when eight team members of the Chicago White Sox
(ever afterwards to be known as the Black Sox) were accused of
conspiring with gamblers to lose the 1919 World Series. Star left
fielder “Shoeless” Joe Jackson admitted his part in the scandal, and on
leaving court one day, heard the plea of a tearful young fan, “Say it
ain’t so, Joe.”
Brooklyn Dodgers catcher Mickey Owen brought groans from fans with
an error that has resounded in Series history. He let a ball get away
from him—in 1941, in the ninth inning, on the third strike, with the
Dodgers ahead of the New York Yankees by one run. The Yankee team
revived and went on to win. Fifteen years later, in 1956, Yankee
pitcher Don Larsen gave fans a rare thrill when he pitched a perfect
game (no hits, no walks, no runners allowed on base) against the
Dodgers, beating them 2–0. It remains the only perfect game pitched in
a Series. Both these World Series were called Subway Series, because
New York City fans could commute by subway from the Dodgers’ Ebbets
Field in Brooklyn to Yankee Stadium in the Bronx.
Another dramatic moment came in the 1989 Series. On Oct. 17, at 5:04
P.M., while 60,000 fans were waiting for the introduction of the
players at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park, an earthquake struck and
the ballpark swayed. Players and fans were safely evacuated (although
67 people in other parts of the city died in the quake), and 10 days
later the Series resumed in the same park. The Oakland Athletics mowed
down the San Francisco Giants in four straight games. From Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations of the World Dictionary | 
