Is it a true "World" Series?

IF it was a 162 Game season between Nations and the guys were being paid and pressured the WBC would then look like the spring training affair that it is – and i LIKE the WBC.

Also agree with you about the WORLD series – the best players form the world compete to pay in that series, why not call it the world series?

Soccer?

Please, don’t mention that in the same context as baseball.

But I did like GA as your most favorite Angel.

The world series was named in what year? At that time, were players from around the world playing in MLB? Just curious.

(March 28, USA vs El Salvador in World Cup qualifying match).

that the first series was sponsored by the New York World newspaper, and that’s where the term “World” series came from. Kind of like how the WBC bowl games are named now a days.

Don’t know if this is true, haven’t looked into it.

Mike Piazza → Italy?!

Until we get a Jamaican starting rotation, it ain’t a World nutink, mon!

I have always made this argument for the World Series being so named. It is perfectly valid.

I always get the feeling that people who argue against the World Series being called as such look at it like MLB is being unjustly Americentric, i.e. America is the center of the world. Well, they are half right. The U.S., like it or not, is the center of the baseball world.

…is that to name it the “World series”, and to name the winners “World Champions” is somewhat premature since they haven’t played a team from outside the U.S. No team from outside North America is represented, and for the most part, the games are attended by the residents of 2 countries.

As the WBC demonstrated last time, and continues to demonstrate this time, MLB does not operate a monopoly on baseball competence / excellence. There are perfectly decent teams, and some exceptional players, that have yet to be witnessed in the major leagues.

If you want to name the champions of MLB as “World champions”, rather than the national champions of an American league, then they should play competitive games against national champions of other baseball playing countries. Indeed, in the many of the world’s favourite sports, there are tournaments to determine regional or world champions (for example the Champions League, Copa Libertadores in football).

It may very well be that the U.S. champs wipe the floor with the team from Japan, South Korea and God knows where else, but underdogs do prevail from time to time – that’s why we watch sports. If it was so easy to predict results, then why play the game.

And at the risk of stating the blindingly obvious, and offending the largely U.S. audience here, if there’s one thing that broadly offends the rest of the world, it’s American assumptions / proclamations of superiority (even if in some rare cases they are correct). No other country declares the winners of their national championship in any sport “World champions”, and yet you guys do it in pretty much every sport you play, despite the evidence of competence / excellence in other parts of the world. To every other nation, it just confirms their assumptions about America’s attitude to the rest of the world.

It does you no favours.

I understand where people from other countries are coming from, and at the same time, I don’t really care. When the first World Series was held in 1903, no other country could field a team that could come close to holding up against the ’03 Boston Americans. So they were without a doubt the best team in the world. Regardless of the quality of play in other countries today, no other league can compete with the American and National Leagues, so the winner of the World Series is still the best in the world, even if there is no playoff between MLB, NPB, and KBO teams.

Also, how many times have we seen a failed prospect or a journeyman from the United States go to play in Japan and become a 40 home run hitting monster?

for it to be called a “world” champion. People come from all over the world to play in our league…the same cannot be said for any other baseball league in the world. That the team name is “Los Angeles” or “New York” or “Minnesota” is irrelevant, since the players putting on the uniform are from the Dominican, Japan, Venezuela, Australia, the Netherlands, Korea, or any other number of countries.

And if you want proof of America being the ‘real place’ that people from around the world wish to compete in baseball? The only people who go to play in Japan are guys like Tuffy Rhodes who go from benchwarmer to all-time greats. The Gods of baseball in Japan come over here and meet extremely mixed success (for every Ichiro and Dice-K, there are 5 Kaz Matsuis or Hideki Irabus.