Baseball in Chicago: This ‘Trolley Car’ World Series Was an Original

The American League was established as a major league in 1901 with teams in eight cities. In 1902 St. Louis replaced Milwaukee and the following year New York received a franchise in place of Baltimore. For fifty years, starting in 1903, the two leagues survived without a single franchise being moved or dropped. That set-up had five cities with a major league club in each league: New York, including Brooklyn, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, and St. Louis. That arrangement made possible one-city world series, a fact that was first exploited in 1906 in Chicago.

This 1986 SABR Convention in Chicago is the 80th anniversary of that event and Baseball in Chicago is dedicated to that momentous world series.

The 1906 Chicago White Sox “Hitless Wonders” became World Champions by vanquishing the Chicago Cubs who, in 1906, had just established a record of 116 wins and a winning percentage that has never been equalled or surpassed to this day. It was a “trolley car” series because Chicago did not have a subway in 1906. The Cubs were the popular favorites but the White Sox won the series four games to two.

New York, including Brooklyn, has, of course, dominated the one-city world series format with 13 “Subway Series,” seven matching Brooklyn against the New York Yankees and six involving the New York Giants and the Yankees. The first of the New York monopoly occurred in 1921 and was the first one-city affair since 1906, fifteen years earlier. That series found the Giants and Yankees in the October classic. The same two teams won their league championships in 1922 and again in 1923. Those three successive years with the same representatives in the world series is a record that has not been matched-and, may never be.

The only other city to take part in a world series confined to only one city was St. Louis when its Cardinals played its Browns for baseball supremacy in 1944. The National League Cardinals prevailed.

Boston and Philadelphia never enjoyed such exclusivity. Both cities almost accomplished the one-city privacy but each missed by one year. The Boston Braves played the Philadelphia A’s in the 1914 world series and, strangely, the next year it was the Boston Red Sox who met the Philadelphia Phillies for baseball honors.

In 1953 the Boston Braves moved to Milwaukee. The St. Louis Browns became the Baltimore Orioles in 1954 and in 1955 the A’s of Philadelphia had moved to Kansas City. Thus, only Chicago and New York remained as two-team cities. The moves of Brooklyn to Los Angeles and the New York Giants to San Francisco for the 1958 season left Chicago as the only city with a team in each league until 1961 when the American League expanded and the Los Angeles Angels were born. So, Los Angeles joined Chicago as a city with major league clubs in each league. New York became a two-team city in 1962 when the Mets were created in the National League expansion. In 1968 The Kansas City A’s had become the Oakland A’s and the San Francisco Giants now had a close neighbor.

Milwaukee might have become a fifth “dual” city but the Braves abandoned that city for Atlanta in 1966; five years later the Seattle franchise, after a one year trial run, moved to Milwaukee in 1970 and became the Brewers.

Until new moves destroy or create additional cities, we now have four with “Subway Series” or “Freeway” or “Trans Golden Gate Bridge” series a possibility. But, the fact remains, only Chicago has had that possibility since 1901 on a continuous basis. It’s too bad that Chicago didn’t make more use of its advantage through all those years. Maybe next year!

The single-city world series listed chronologically follow:

• • 1906 – CHICAGO WHITE SOX vs Cubs
  • 1921 – NEW YORK GIANTS vs Yankees
  • 1922 – NEW YORK GIANTS vs Yankees
  • 1923 – NEW YORK YANKEES vs Giants
  • 1936 – NEW YORK YANKEES vs Giants
  • 1937 – NEW YORK YANKEES vs Giants
  • 1941 – NEW YORK YANKEES vs Dodgers
  • 1944 – ST. LOUIS CARDINALS vs Browns
  • 1947 – NEW YORK YANKEES vs Dodgers
  • 1949 – NEW YORK YANKEES vs Dodgers
  • 1951 – NEW YORK YANKEES vs Giants
  • 1952 – NEW YORK YANKEES vs Dodgers
  • 1953 – NEW YORK YANKEES vs Dodgers
  • 1955 – BROOKLYN DODGERS vs Yankees
  • 1956 – NEW YORK YANKEES vs Dodgers

World Champions are printed in caps.