1888 Major League Baseball season

1888 MLB season
LeagueAmerican Association (AA)
National League (NL)
SportBaseball
DurationRegular season:
  • April 18 – October 17, 1888 (AA)
  • April 20 – October 13, 1888 (NL)
World's Championship Series:
  • October 16–27, 1888
Number of games140
Number of teams16 (8 per league)
Pennant winner
AA championsSt. Louis Browns
  AA runners-upBrooklyn Bridegrooms
NL championsNew York Giants
  NL runners-upChicago White Stockings
World's Championship Series
ChampionsNew York Giants
  Runners-upSt. Louis Browns
Locations of teams for the 1888 American Association season
American Association

The 1888 major league baseball season began on April 18, 1888. The regular season ended on October 17, with the New York Giants and the St. Louis Browns as regular season champions of the National League and American Association, respectively. The postseason began with Game 1 of the fifth World's Championship Series on October 16 and ended with Game 10 on October 27, in what was a best-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's New York Metropolitans folded, and saw them replaced by the newly enfranchised Kansas City Cowboys. Meanwhile, the Brooklyn Grays renamed as the Brooklyn Bridegrooms.