During the Glory Days, New York practically owned the World Series. At least one New York team was in the Series every year but 1948, and only once in those ten contests did a non-New York team take home the championship. The Yankees dominated with seven World Series wins, including five in a row (1949-1953); the Dodgers and the Giants each took one. New Yorkers came to count on the World Series as virtually an extension of the regular season.

To compound the postseason excitement in the city, seven of these contests were "subway series" – championships in which two New York teams played each other. And the pennant race in the National League was often a subway series in its own right—in this era before the expansion of the major leagues, there were no divisions and no scheduled playoffs, and the Dodgers' and the Giants' struggle for the pennant ran into the season’s final month several times, most famously in 1951.