A report on Major League Baseball, Chicago Cubs and Boston Red Sox

The 1876 White Stockings won the NL championship.

The 1906 Cubs won a record 116 of 154 games. They then won back-to-back World Series titles in 1907–08.

The 1901 Boston Americans team photograph

1959 World Series action at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum

Iconic photo of the Huntington Avenue Grounds before the first modern World Series game

Graph showing, by year, the average number of runs per MLB game

Mark McGwire was one of several central figures in baseball's steroids scandal

A sports-related curse that was supposedly placed on the Chicago Cubs by Billy Goat Tavern owner William Sianis during Game 4 of the 1945 World Series.

A Grapefruit League game at the former Los Angeles Dodgers camp in Vero Beach, Florida

President John F. Kennedy throwing out the first pitch at the 1962 All-Star Game at DC Stadium

Ryne Sandberg set numerous league and club records in his career and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2005.

Carlton Fisk, best known for his "waving fair" home run in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series

Rafael Palmeiro (batter), one of the MLB players suspended for steroid use

Andre Dawson, 5× All-Star and 1987 NL MVP during tenure in Chicago

Roger Clemens is the club's all-time strikeout (2,590), wins (192), and shutouts (38) leader

Sammy Sosa was the captain of the Chicago Cubs during his tenure with the team.

The Red Sox hosting a home game against the Atlanta Braves in July 2001

Kerry Wood, along with Mark Prior, led the Cubs' rotation in 2003.

The Red Sox celebrate their clinching of the 2003 AL Wild Card with a victory over the Baltimore Orioles

Dempster emerged in 2004 and became the Cubs' regular closer.

David Ortiz was named 2004 ALCS MVP and 2013 World Series MVP. His #34 was retired by the club in 2017

Alfonso Soriano signed with the club in 2007.

Carlos Zambrano warming up before a game

Victorious Red Sox players being honored at the White House by President George W. Bush

Starlin Castro during his 2010 rookie season

The Massachusetts State House displaying a banner in honor of the Red Sox's 2013 World Series appearance. "B Strong" was a patch worn by the Red Sox in memory of Boston Marathon bombing victims

One of two Cubs building blocks, Anthony Rizzo, swinging in the box

The Cubs celebrate after winning the 2016 World Series.

2016 Champions visit the White House in June 2017.

Left field grandstands during a 2014 game

Center field bleachers during a 2014 game

1907: Boston players leaving their hotel in Little Rock for a spring training game (photo courtesy of the Boston Public Library)

Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame at Fenway Park

The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as part of the National League (NL) Central division.

- Chicago Cubs

The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division.

- Boston Red Sox

The Cubs responded by winning a pennant in the war-shortened season of 1918, where they played a part in another team's curse: the Boston Red Sox defeated Grover Cleveland Alexander's Cubs four games to two in the 1918 World Series, Boston's last Series championship until 2004.

- Chicago Cubs

The modern Chicago Cubs and Atlanta Braves franchises trace their histories back to the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players in the 1870s.

- Major League Baseball

Additionally, many ballparks had large dimensions, such as the West Side Grounds of the Chicago Cubs, which was 560 ft to the center field fence, and the Huntington Avenue Grounds of the Boston Red Sox, which was 635 ft to the center field fence, thus home runs were rare, and "small ball" tactics such as singles, bunts, stolen bases, and the hit-and-run play dominated the strategies of the time.

- Major League Baseball

The Red Sox traded the team's popular, yet oft-injured, shortstop Nomar Garciaparra and outfielder Matt Murton to the Chicago Cubs, and received first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz from the Minnesota Twins, and shortstop Orlando Cabrera from the Montreal Expos.

- Boston Red Sox

5 related topics with Alpha

World Series

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Christy Mathewson threw 3 complete-game shutouts in the 1905 World Series.

Bill Mazeroski hit a dramatic ninth-inning walk-off home run that decided the 1960 World Series

The Catch: Willie Mays hauls in Vic Wertz's drive near the wall in Game 1 of the 1954 World Series.

1968 World Series program and tickets for Games 4 and 5 at Tiger Stadium

Reggie Jackson earned the nickname "Mr. October" by hitting three consecutive home runs in the clinching game six of the 1977 World Series

President Ronald Reagan with the 1988 World Series champions: Los Angeles Dodgers

In Game 6 of the 1991 World Series, Kirby Puckett made a memorable leaping catch in left field to rob an extra-base hit. In the bottom of the 11th inning, Puckett hit a game-winning home run to send the Series to Game 7

Fireworks in SkyDome after Joe Carter's 1993 World Series-winning home run

Game 1 of the 2008 World Series between the Philadelphia Phillies (NL) and Tampa Bay Rays (AL) at Tropicana Field

In 2011, David Freese hit a game-tying two-run triple (with two outs) to send it into extra innings. In the bottom of the 11th, Freese led off with a game-winning home run to send the Series to Game 7

Chicago Cubs celebrate their 2016 World Series victory, their first in 108 years

Game action in the 1906 Series in Chicago (the only all-Chicago World Series to date)

Bill Wambsganss completes his unassisted triple play in 1920

Washington's Bucky Harris scores his home run in the fourth inning of Game 7 (October 10, 1924)

The Chicago Cubs celebrate winning the 2016 World Series, which ended the club's 108-year championship drought.

The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL).

One of them matched the two pennant winners, Pittsburgh Pirates of the NL and Boston Americans (later known as the Red Sox) of the AL; that one is known as the 1903 World Series played at Huntington Avenue Grounds.

The two most prolific World Series winners to date, the New York Yankees and the St. Louis Cardinals, did not win their first championship until the 1920s; and three of the teams that were highly successful prior to 1920 (the Boston Red Sox, Chicago White Sox and the Chicago Cubs) went the rest of the 20th century without another World Series win.

National League

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Shea Stadium prior to the start of a New York Mets game in 2008. Shea had the best attendance in the National League that year, drawing over 53,000 fans per game on average.

Morgan Bulkeley, the first president of the National League

The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team sports league.

The two remaining original NL franchises, Boston and Chicago, remain still in operation today as the Atlanta Braves and the Chicago Cubs.

Boston ("Boston Red Stockings"), the dominant team in the NA (later the Boston Braves, then the Milwaukee Braves, now the Atlanta Braves, not to be confused with the present-day Boston Red Sox of the later American League)

New York Yankees

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American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of The Bronx.

The Polo Grounds, home of the Yankees from 1913 to 1922, was demolished in 1964, after the Mets had moved to Shea Stadium in Flushing.

With his hitting prowess, Babe Ruth ushered in an offensive-oriented era of baseball and helped lead the Yankees to four World Series titles.

In 1941, Joe DiMaggio set an MLB record with a 56-game hitting streak that stands to this day and will probably never be broken.

Opening Day of the 1951 baseball season at Griffith Stadium. President Harry Truman throws out the first ball as Bucky Harris and Casey Stengel look on.

Mickey Mantle was one of the franchise's most celebrated hitters, highlighted by his 1956 Triple Crown and World Series championship.

During 1974 and 1975, Yankee Stadium was renovated into its final shape and structure, as shown here in 2002, seven years before demolition.

The mask and catcher's mitt of Thurman Munson, the team captain who was killed in a plane crash in 1979

Don Mattingly headlined a Yankees franchise that struggled in the 1980s.

The Yankees' success in the late 1990s and early 2000s was built from a core of productive players that included Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera, and Derek Jeter.

Yankees' third baseman Alex Rodriguez, 2007

Joe Girardi was a Yankees catcher before he became manager in 2008.

The new Yankee Stadium opened in 2009 and was christened with a World Series victory in the same way that the original Yankee Stadium was christened with a World Series victory when it opened in 1923.

Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge quickly became the new face of the team.

"Freddy Sez" holding one of his signs near the bleachers entrance before a game between the Yankees and the Texas Rangers

A shirt worn by a number of Bleacher Creatures

The grounds crew at Yankee Stadium dancing to "Y.M.C.A."

Announcers Michael Kay, Paul O'Neill, Ken Singleton, and Ryan Ruocco in the YES Network broadcast booth at Yankee Stadium in 2009

The first four in the row of retired numbers at the old Yankee Stadium

The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division.

The team's rivalry with the Boston Red Sox is one of the most well-known rivalries in North American sports.

In 1931, Joe McCarthy, who was previously manager of the Chicago Cubs, was hired as manager and brought the Yankees back to the top of the AL. They swept the Chicago Cubs in the 1932 World Series, and brought the team's streak of consecutive World Series game wins to 12.

Cleveland Guardians

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American professional baseball team based in Cleveland.

The team is named after the eight Guardians of Traffic statues displayed on the Hope Memorial Bridge next to their home field.

Nap Lajoie, who won the 1903 American League Batting Championship with the Indians, was the team's namesake from 1903 to 1915, and is an MLB Hall of Famer.

Bob Feller; winner of the A.L. pitching Triple Crown in 1940, member of the 1948 World Series Championship team, the Indians all-time leader in wins and strikeouts, and an MLB Hall of Famer.

Herb Score – who was the 1955 American League Rookie of the Year, a two-time A.L. All-Star, and after his playing career went on to be the longest-tenured announcer in club history, serving 34 seasons (1964–1997) as a member of the Indians broadcast team.

In 1975, Frank Robinson became the first African-American manager in MLB history

Mark Shapiro – Indians GM from 2001 to 2010, President from 2010 to 2015, and two-time Sporting News Executive of the Year.

CC Sabathia won the 2007 AL Cy Young Award with the Indians.

Sabathia's teammate Cliff Lee won the AL Cy Young Award in 2008.

Mike Chernoff, who has served as Indians/Guardians' general manager since 2015.

Manager Terry Francona, who in his tenure with the Indians/Guardians is a two-time AL Manager of the Year (2013, 2016), led the team to the 2016 AL Championship, and is the all-time franchise leader in wins by a manager.

Corey Kluber, who is a two-time AL Cy Young Award winner with the Indians (2014, 2017).

Shane Bieber, who won the 2020 AL Cy Young Award, giving the team five winners in 14 seasons.

Cleveland in "diamond C" font is featured on the team's road uniforms

Guardians TV announcer Matt Underwood (seated, center) and longtime lead radio announcer Tom Hamilton (right)

The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division.

Ultimately, two of the league's western clubs went out of business during the first season and the Chicago Fire left that city's White Stockings impoverished, unable to field a team again until 1874.

The Cleveland franchise was among its eight charter members, and is one of four teams that remain in its original city, along with Boston, Chicago, and Detroit.

A 1994 Grapefruit League game at the LA Dodgers' former camp in Vero Beach, Florida

Spring training

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Boston Red Sox players in Hot Springs, Arkansas, in 1912

1885 Chicago White Stockings (known today as the Chicago Cubs)

Babe Ruth hit a 573-foot home run in spring training, 1918. He led the league with 11 home runs and had a 13–7 record as the Red Sox won the 1918 World Series.

A 2007 Cactus League game between the Cubs and the White Sox at HoHoKam Park

New York Giants during Spring Training in Marlin, Texas (circa 1915)

Jim Thorpe, US Olympian, New York Giants Spring Training in Marlin, Texas, likely 1918

A Braves spring training game against the Mets in 2008

An extended spring training game in Sarasota, Florida, during the 2008 season

Spring training is the preseason in Major League Baseball (MLB), a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular season.

The location of Hot Springs and the concept of getting the players ready for the upcoming season was the brainchild of Chicago White Stockings (today's Chicago Cubs) team President Albert Spalding and Cap Anson.

The Cleveland Spiders, Detroit Tigers, Pittsburgh Pirates, Cincinnati Reds, Brooklyn Dodgers, and Boston Red Sox followed the White Stockings to Hot Springs.