The 2016 World Series has been the championship series of Major League Baseball’s (MLB) 2016 season. The 112th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff involving the National League (NL) winner Chicago Cubs and the American League (AL) winner Cleveland Indians, the very first meeting of those franchises in postseason history. The show was performed between October 25 and November 2 (although Sport 7 ended slightly after 12:00 am local time on November 3). The Indians had home-field advantage because the AL had won the 2016 All-Star Game. This was the last World Series to possess home-field advantage dependent on the All-Star Game results; since 2017, home-field advantage has been given to the team with the better record.
The Cubs defeated the Indians 4 games to 3 to win their first World Series since 1908. Game 7, an 8–7 victory in 10 innings, marked the fifth time that a Game 7 had gone into extra innings and the first since 1997 (which, coincidentally, the Indians also dropped ). It was also the very first Game 7 to have a rain delay, which occurred as the tenth inning was about to start. The Cubs became the sixth team to come back from a 3-1 deficit to win a best-of-seven World Series, following the 1925 Pittsburgh Pirates, the 1958 New York Yankees, the 1968 Detroit Tigers, the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates, and the 1985 Kansas City Royals.
The Cubs, playing within their eleventh World Series and their first since 1945, won their third championship and first since 1908, finishing the longest world championship drought in North American professional sports history. It had been the Indians’ sixth appearance in the World Series and their first since 1997, with their last Series win having come from 1948. Both teams entered their matchup since the two franchises with the longest World Series name droughts, a joint 176 years without a championship. Cleveland manager Terry Francona, who had previously won World Series titles with the Boston Red Sox in 2004 and 2007, fell short in his bid to become the third largest director to win his first few trips into the Fall Classic, following Casey Stengel and Joe Torre.
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