DATE=10-17-2003

TYPE=Special English Feature

NUMBER=7-29060

TITLE=SPECIAL ENGLISH AMERICAN MOSAIC #944-World Series

BYLINE=Nancy Steinbach

TELEPHONE=619-2585

DATELINE=Washington

EDITOR=Arditti

CONTENT=

HOST:

Saturday is the first game of the World Series for the championship in North American baseball. As Faith Lapidus reports, perhaps no other sport is rooted as deeply in American life.

ANNCR:

No other sport has created as many popular traditions as baseball has. There are plenty of poems, songs, books and films.

Americans of all ages play baseball. Thousands of teams compete at all levels. There are school teams, company teams and teams supported by religious groups. Baseball is part of American English. Here is just one example: When Americans fail at something, they might say they "struck out."

The first group of professional baseball teams formed in the United States in eighteen-seventy-six. The National League had eight teams then. Today it has sixteen. The other major league today is the American League. It formed in nineteen-oh-one.

The American League tried to get National League players to change teams. The American League teams were also competing with the National League for fans.

One-hundred years ago, in nineteen-three, officials from the two leagues met to try to ease the situation. They agreed to a series of games between two of their teams. The team that won the most games in the series would be declared the best team in the land. That is still considered the purpose of the games known as the World Series.

The first World Series brought together the American League team from Boston and the National League team from Pittsburgh. The American League team won. Baseball historians say that victory confirmed the American League as a real force in professional baseball. They also say the World Series made the sport into America's game. And, for millions of Americans, that tradition continues today.