The 1892 World Series followed the first split season in National League history, with the first-half champion Boston Beaneaters (102–48) playing the second-half champion Cleveland Spiders (93–56) in a best-of-nine postseason series to determine the overall champion of the 1892 baseball season. After the first game ended in a 0–0 tie due to darkness, Boston won the next five games to win the championship.

Contemporary newspaper reports referred to the games as the "World's Championship Series" or "World's Series". This was the last of the pre-modern-era World Series, and followed similar annual postseason competitions held from 1884 to 1890 between the champions of the National League and the American Association (which collapsed after the 1891 season). Later, the Temple Cup would be awarded to the winner of an annual postseason series between National League teams, from 1894 to 1897.

Boston manager Frank Selee worried that late-October weather conditions would lead to postponements and low attendance. Cleveland's player-manager Patsy Tebeau suggested that "the [Boston] Beaneaters fear the humiliation of possible defeat." Tebeau told Sporting Life that the cold weather was a "dodge ... simply an excuse to avoid playing Cleveland."

Bookies had the Spiders as the favorite, due to their pitching staff. Cy Young had gone 36–12 in 49 starts, with a 1.93 earned-run average. Meanwhile, Boston star Mike "King" Kelly had a batting average of only .189 for the year, and was described as "one of the biggest failures of the base ball season".

Boston won the series, 5–0–1.

Hugh Duffy of Boston batted .462 with nine runs batted in and six extra-base hits including a home run.

Had the series required more than six games to complete, the remaining games would have been played in New York City.

The first game, which had started at three o'clock, had gone 11 scoreless innings when it was stopped at five o'clock due to darkness.