U.S. Census Bureau History: The World Series
![1924 World Series](/web/20131018120437im_/http://www.census.gov/history/img/WorldSeries.jpg)
President Coolidge throws the first pitch at the 1924
World Series. Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress.
This year, baseball’s World Series begins on October 23. The first World Series between the American and National
Leagues was held in 1903. That year, the
Boston
Americans beat the
Pittsburgh
Pirates in a
best-of-nine series. In 1904, the National League champion
New York
Giants declined to play in a post-season
series against the American League's Boston Red Sox. However, the World Series has been played every year after the end
of the regular season since 1905.
Here are some facts about baseball and the World Series from the U.S. Census Bureau:
- The 1947 World Series was the first to be televised. The
1950 Census
was the first to ask if households owned a
television. That year, 12 percent of U.S. households had a TV.
- According to the
Statistical Abstract
, 196,000 people
attended the four-game 1950 World Series between the
New
York
Yankees and the
Philadelphia
Phillies. In
1989, 223,000 people attended the four World Series games between the
Oakland
Athletics and the
San Francisco
Giants.
- In 2012, the
San
Francisco
Giants swept the
Detroit
Tigers to
win the World Series in four games. These cities
ranked
14th and 18th, respectively,
in terms of population size that year.
![The Polo Grounds in New York, 1910](/web/20131018120437im_/http://www.census.gov/history/img/PoloGrounds.jpg)
The Polo Grounds, New York, October 13, 1910.
Photo
courtesy of the Library of Congress.