From a Wall Street Journal review by David M. Shribman of the book by Tyler Kepner titled “The Grandest Stage: A History of the World Series”:

No game worships the past the way baseball does, so as the MLB playoffs begin their interminable, bewilderingly circuitous march toward the World Series, let’s recall what the fall classic once was. It used to be that the World Series was the highlight of the sporting calendar. It used to be that schoolchildren would race home on an October afternoon to listen to and, in later years, to watch the World Series. It used to be that the World Series was such a potent social and cultural marker that presidential candidates didn’t really focus on the fall election until after it was over.