The contest for the world's championship in 1888 was the most exciting and important of any yet played; and the public attention given to the series throughout the entire base ball world, was such as to show that it would be a paying policy on the part of the League and the Association to establish a supplementary championship season, to begin on the first of October each year, the series of games to be played including not only that for the world's championship, but also to include contests between the other clubs of each organization so as to settle the question as to which were the eight leading professional teams of the country. Prior to 1888 but three clubs had participated in the regular series, and these were: St. Louis on the one hand, and Chicago (twice) and Detroit on the other. In 1888, however, a new League candidate entered the field against the St. Louis champions, and that was the New York club team, it being the first time the two clubs had ever encountered each other. The series arranged between the two clubs was one of ten games, the first six victories to decide the contest. They were commenced at the Polo Grounds on October 16, and the opening contest gave promise of a very interesting series of games, and when the St. Louis team "Chicagoed" their League adversaries the next day the interest in the matches doubled. But the close of the first week's games left New York in the van with a credit of four victories out of the five games played. The contest of the 19th took place in Brooklyn, but the other four were played at the Polo Grounds, the largest attendance of the whole series being that of Saturday, Oct. 20, when the receipts exceeded $5,000. At the four games played at the Polo Grounds the aggregate of receipts was $15,405, while the aggregate of receipts at the four games at St. Louis, was but $5,612, less than that at the Saturday game at the Polo Grounds the previous week. The game at Brooklyn was marred by the bad weather, while that at Philadelphia was dampened by the lead the New York team had previously attained. The series virtually ended at St. Louis on October 25, when New York won their sixth victory and the championship. After that Ward left the New York team to join the Australian tourists, and the interest in the games ended, the receipts falling off from $2,365 on October 25 to $411 on October 26. The last game of the series was a mere ordinary exhibition game, Titcomb pitching in four innings and Hatfield in four. The player's game on the 28th was even less attractive, the St. Louis team winning easily by 6 to 0, Keefe, Welch and George taking turns in the box for New York. The record of the series in full is as follows: