Temple Cup

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The Temple Cup was a trophy awarded to the winner of a post-season Major League Baseball Championship Series that was conducted for four seasons of the National League during the 1890s. The Temple Cup was also known as the World's Championship Series. If one team won three titles, that team would have possession of the trophy in perpetuity. The idea failed to gain fan support, partly because the second place teams won three of the first four series.

The 30" high silver cup was donated by coal, citrus, and lumber baron William Chase Temple, the owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates at the time. There was only one major league at the time, so the Series was played between the first- and second-place teams.^[1]

The revenue was to be split 65% to 35%, but the players of the first series (1894) decided to split the money 50% to 50%. However, after the series the Giants cheated some Oriole players out of their money, tainting the Cup and prompting Temple to sell the Pirates in disgust.

Interest in the Series faded quickly, as it seemed artificial, especially with the second-place team winning too often. It would be nearly 100 years before a non-title winner would be allowed to participate in a major league post-season series, with the introduction of the wild card qualifiers in 1994.

In 1939, the Cup itself was tracked down by The Sporting News. It was in the possession of a Temple family member in Florida. The Cup was displayed at the 1939 New York World's Fair. The Temple family sold the Cup for $750 to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, where it resides today.

Summary of Temple Cup Series: