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The first World Series was played between Pittsburgh and Boston in 1903 and was a nine-game series. Boston won the series 5-3.
The New York Yankees have won 26 World Series titles, which is more than any other team.
Former Yankees right fielder Mickey Mantle holds the record for most career home runs (18) and RBI (40) in World Series history.
Baseball stars from the National League and the American League played the first All-Star Game in 1933. The National League has won 40 of the 73 games. The game ended in a tie twice. In 1961 rain in Boston prevented extra innings and the game ended in a 1-1 tie. And in 2002, the game went 11 innings with the score knotted at seven before it was finally called off due to a lack of pitchers.
Baltimore Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken, Jr. didn't miss a game in 16 years. He played in 2,632 consecutive games from April 30, 1982 to Sept. 19, 1998.
Pete Rose, who played for the Cincinnati Reds and then was banned from baseball for life for betting on games while managing the team, holds the all-time record for hits (4,256) and games played (3,562).
In 2001, San Francisco's Barry Bonds broke the all-time single-season home run record when he hit 73. He broke the mark of 70, set by St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Mark McGwire in 1998.
Fourteen players have hit four home runs in one game: Bobby Lowe, Ed Delahanty, Lou Gehrig, Chuck Klein, Pat Seerey, Gil Hodges, Joe Adcock, Rocky Colavito, Willie Mays, Mike Schmidt, Bob Horner, Mark Whiten, Mike Cameron and Shawn Green.
Pitcher Nolan Ryan played 27 seasons in major league baseball and struck out more batters in his career than any other pitcher.
San Francisco's Barry Bonds has won the National League MVP Award seven times. That's four more times than Stan Musial, Roy Campanella, and Mike Schmidt, his closest NL co-winners. On the American League MVP list are Jimmie Foxx, Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra, and Mickey Mantle with three awards each.
Philadelphia A's (now the Oakland Athletics) manager Connie Mack has 3,755 career victories, more than any other manager in history.
The National Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum is located in Cooperstown, N.Y. It was created in 1935 to celebrate baseball's 100th anniversary.
The average life span of a major league baseball is 7 pitches.
Babe Ruth wore a cabbage leaf under his cap while playing baseball, and he used to change it every 2 innings.
The longest baseball game in major league history was on May 1, 1920 between The Boston Braves and The Brooklyn Robins. The game lasted 8 hours and 22 minutes, went 26 innings, and was finally called a draw with a score of 1-1.
Nolan Ryan was the first major league baseball player to sign for a salary of $1 Million as a free agent when he signed with the Astros in 1979.
In major league baseball, the distance between bases is 90 feet. The distance from the pictures mound to home plate is 60 feet, 8 inches.
Baseball ended one of its oldest traditions in 1997 when inter league play begin for the first time. This means that teams from the American league can play National league teams during the regular season. The first inter league game was played on June 12, 1997.
Major league umpire Cal Hubbard is the only person in both the football and baseball Hall of fame.
Bob Feller and Kerry Woods are the only pitchers in history to accomplish this unusual feat : They both struck out one batter for every year of there ages in a game.
The slihouette on the Major League of Baseball logo is Harmon Killebrew.
Major league baseballs have a small cork wound with 316 yards of wool yarn. That is covered with two pieces of cowhide held together with 216 raised red cotton stitches.
The velocity of a pitched baseball is about 8 miles per hour faster as it leaves the pitcher's hand than when it reaches home plate.
Babe Ruth is given credit for the invention of the modern baseball bat. He was the first player to order a bat with a knob at the end of the handle. Louisville Slugger produced the bat with which he hit 29 home runs in 1919.
Major league baseball clubs didn't start putting numbers on uniforms until the 1930s. As a result, Ty Cobb, who broke many batting and base-stealing records while playing with the Detroit Tigers (1905-1926), didn't have his uniform number retired. He was never issued a number.
Major league baseball bats are made of ash. Almost all are shorter than 36 inches and weigh 31 to 36 ounces. The barrel of many bats today is 2.5 inches in diameter. The barrel can be 2.75 inches in diameter.
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