World Series

The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League and the National League. The winner of the World Series championship is determined through a best-of-seven playoff, and the winning team is awarded the Commissioner's Trophy. Prior to the AL and NL being split into divisions in 1969, the team with the best regular-season win–loss record in each league automatically clinched its league's pennant and advanced to the World Series, barring the rare tie necessitating a pennant playoff. Since then each league has conducted a League Championship Series preceding the World Series to determine which teams will advance, while those series have been preceded in turn by Division Series since 1995, and Wild Card games or series in each league since 2012. The World Series has been contested 117 times as of 2021, with the AL winning 66 and the NL winning 51.