Orioles

Bridegrooms

Red Stockings

Blues

   Cowboys

Colonels

Athletics

Browns

Locations of teams for the 1888American Association season
American Association

Beaneaters

White Stockings

Wolverines

Hoosiers

Giants

Quakers

Alleghenys

Nationals

Locations of teams for the 1888National League season
National League

The1888 major league baseball season began on April 18, 1888. The regular season ended on October 17, with theNew York Giants and theSt. Louis Browns as regular season champions of theNational League andAmerican Association, respectively. The postseason began with Game 1 of thefifth World's Championship Series on October 16 and ended with Game 10 on October 27, in what was abest-of-eleven-playoff. The Giants defeated the Browns, six games to four, capturing their first World's Championship Series.

Over the offseason, the American Association'sNew York Metropolitans folded, and saw them replaced by the newly enfranchisedKansas City Cowboys. Meanwhile, the Brooklyn Grays renamed as the Brooklyn Bridegrooms.

The 1888 schedule consisted of 140 games for all teams in the American Association and National League, each of which had eight teams. Each team was scheduled to play 20 games against the other seven teams of their respective league. This continued the format put in place by the American Association since the1886 season and was the first season that the National League adopted the format. This format would last until1892.

American Association Opening Day took place on April 18 featuring all eight teams, while National League Opening Day took place on April 20, also featuring all eight teams. The American Association would see its final day of the regular season on October 15 with a game between theCleveland Blues andPhiladelphia Athletics, while the National League would see its final day of the season on October 13, featuring all eight teams.^[1] The1888 World's Championship Series took place between October 16 and October 27.

The 1888 season saw the following rule changes:

• Abatter was credited with abase hit when arunner was hit by hisbatted ball.^[2]
• A batter was credited with a hit when a runner is out for being hit by the batted ball.^[2]
• Thebase on balls exemption from a timeat bat was restored.^[2]
• Rule 50 § 4 was amended allowing a runner to take a base if the ball hits the umpire, while a struck ball hits a base runner after an attempt has been made to field it, the runner shall not be declared out.^[3]
• Rules distinguishingearned runs from unearned runs were created, mainly that an earned run was defined as one unaided by errors, with an exception for bases on balls; a player that was walked and scores will be counted towards a pitcher's total earned runs.^[4]
• Rule 4 changed, changing the total number of strikes needed for astrikeout were reduced from four to three (as they were, prior to1887.^[2][3]
• The1887 batting average rule which included balls in the calculation of thebatting average is reversed.^[2]

An asterisk (*) denotes the ballpark a team played the minority of their home games at

Blue laws restricted Sunday activities in several localities, causing several teams of the American Association (which was informally referred to as the "Beer & Whiskey League" due to its openness onalcohol, compared to the National League) to play at ballparks in a different locality.

Any team shown insmall text indicates a previous team a player was on during the season.

• 1888 Major League Baseball season schedule at Baseball Reference

• 1888 Major League Baseball season
• Major League Baseball seasons

• Use mdy dates from January 2025
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