N.Y. Beat Brooklyn in Pre-Subway Series
Oct. 21, 2000 — -- In the officially handed down version of baseball’s storied history, the New York Giants defeated the New York Yankees five games to three in New York’s very first modern Subway Series in 1921, and the Yankees beat the Brooklyn Dodgers four games to three in 1956, the last all-New York World Series.
But in the precambrian mists of baseball -- before the Yankees, the American League and even New York’s subway system -- the Giants beat a team called the Brooklyn Bridegrooms six games to three in an 1889 World Series championship.
It was the original “Subway Series” -- sans subway, of course.
America would have to wait until the 20th century for the American League versus National League World Series that exists today.
However, each year from 1884 to 1890, the National League champion played the top finisher from another professional league, the American Association. Total Baseball: The Official Encyclopedia of Major League Baseball calls those championships the “World Series.”
The 1889 Series was the only one of the period between two teams from the same metropolitan area -- although at the time, Brooklyn and New York were considered separate cities.
The Bridegrooms, the same franchise later named the Dodgers, got its nickname after seven of its players were married around the same time in 1888, according to the Los Angeles Dodgers’ official Web site.
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