In baseball, why call the World Series by that name when only USA teams play?

Question

They should change the name as the world baseball teams don't even compete with us to play in the.....world series? What would be a good name? If a player hits a home run over the fence or in the audience, should he be required to run the bases?

Answer 1

As far as the actual "name" World Series goes there are many theories as to why the name was given, one baseball myth that just won't die is that the "World Series" was named for the New York World newspaper, which supposedly sponsored the earliest contests. It didn't, and it wasn't.

In fact, the postseason series between the AL and NL champs was originally known as the "Championship of the World" or "World's Championship Series." That was shortened through usage to "World's Series" and finally to "World Series."

This usage can be traced through the annual baseball guides. Spalding's Base Ball Guide for 1887 reported the results of the 1886 postseason series between Chicago, champions of the National League, and St. Louis, champions of the American Association, under the heading "The World's Championship." As the editor noted, the two leagues "both entitle their championship contests each season as those for the base ball championship of the United States," so a more grandiose name was required to describe the postseason showdown between the two "champions of the United States."

But the Spalding Guide -- which, after all, was published by one of the world's largest sporting goods companies, with a vested interest in bringing baseball to other lands -- had grander ambitions. By 1890, the Spalding Guide was explaining that "[t]he base ball championship of the United States necessarily includes that of the entire world, though the time will come when Australia will step in as a rival, and after that country will come Great Britain; but all that is for the future."

This didn't happen, but the name "World's Championship Series" stuck. Reporting on the first modern postseason series, the Red Sox-Pirates battle of 1903, the 1904 Reach Guide called it the "World's Championship Series." By 1912, Reach's headline spoke of the "World's Series," while editor Francis Richter's text still referred to the "World's Championship Series." The Reach Guide switched from "World's Series" to "World Series" in 1931, retaining the modern usage through its merger with the Spalding Guide and through its final issue in 1941. The separately-edited Spalding Guide used "World's Series" through 1916, switching to "World Series" in the 1917 edition.

The Spalding-Reach Guide was replaced as Major League Baseball's semi-official annual by the Sporting News Guide, first published in 1942. The Sporting News Guide used "World's Series" from 1942 through 1963, changing to "World Series" in the 1964 edition.

Moreover, the New York World never claimed any connection with postseason baseball. The World was a tabloid much given to flamboyant self-promotion. If it had been involved in any way with sponsoring a championship series, the fact would have been emblazoned across its sports pages for months. I reviewed every issue of the World for the months leading up to the 1903 and 1905 World's Championship Series -- there's not a word suggesting any link between the paper and the series.

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As far as running the bases, it's part of the tradition of the game. Major League Baseball isn't some beer league softball where guys just have to run dow to first base, it takes the glory out of the homerun. Imagine Aaron's 715th homer sailing over the wall and then he just turns and walks back to the dugout or imagine Joe Carter crushing Mitch Williams pitch about 430 feet in game 6 of the '93 World Series and instead of skipping around the bases like a mad man...he just turned and sauntered back to the dugout.

The trot around the bases is as much a part of baseball as the home run itself. It should definitely be required.


I hope that answers your question.

Answer 2

I understand to an extent with the question. I love the sport coming from Kansas City but the only way this will ever change is when the World Baseball Classic becomes adopted by the MLB and teams will play their best players. A lot of the best players however refuse to play because they are concerned that they will lose a lot of income if they are injured while doing so. What would be interesting to see is the World Series team playing against the championship teams from all the other countries where they have competitive leagues. That would also mean that players from other countries who may be on the American team must continue to play on their contracted team against their countrymen otherwise it becomes more like an Olympic team.

Answer 3

While the franchises themselves are located within the US (and one in Canada!) the players come from all over the world. Currently 15 different countries to be exact. Approximately 30% of MLB players are foreign born. Also, one must mention that baseball isn't commonly played outside East Asia, and the western hemisphere. When the inagural World Baseball Classic was held last year, many teams were unable to field full competitive rosters, so many US born players (Mike Piazza for example) played for their ancestral homeland.
So it's hard to call it a "US" league despite the location of the franchises. Let's call it a "world league" that just happens to play it's games where the audience is.



And a player IS required to run the bases or it's not a home run.

Answer 4

You may have heard fo the World Baseball Classic? It's to be held every four years, and the first one was held 11 month ago.

Baseball now distinguishes between the World Series champions (that's a name that's more than a century old, BTW) and the World champions. The current World Series champions are the St Louis Cardinals, and the current World champions are the Japanese. In fact, the US didn't make it into the finals, and were life and death to survive the first elimination round.

Baseball is played in the US, Canada, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Australia, Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Nicaragua, the Domincan Republic, Aruba, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, Italy, South Africa and the Netherlands. I may have missed some countries, but I hope you get the idea.


According ot the rulebook, a homerun is not a home run unless the batter-runner touches all of the bases, including home plate. That's the reason for the call "touch 'em all". If the batter-runner is injuried in the course of running the bases on a HR, a pinch runner must be sent into the game to replace the batter-runner. If, because of a baserunning error by another runner who was already on base, the batter-runner cannot complete running the bases, he is not credited with a HR.

This is what happened to Robin Ventura a few years ago, when his LDS-ending grand slam home run turned into a grand slam single. In fact, contrary to what this article says, Ventura was unable to continue running the bases because the runner in front of him, Todd Pratt, stopped running after he reached second base and saw the winning run score. Ventura could not continue to run the bases at that point as he would have passed the runner in front of him, which would have meant that he was out for passing the runner in front of him. If I remember correctly, there were two out at that time, so if he had passed Pratt, his would have been the third out of the inning, and the HR would have been disallowed. The game would have continued.

Answer 5

Because baseball was invented in America, and at the time the World Series was named, it was the only country (except for maybe Canada), where baseball was played professionally.

And yes, a player still needs to run the bases when he hits a home run.

Answer 6

Its been called the world series for over a century - well before other countries were playing baseball.

And when the player hits a home run, he IS required to run the bases. If he neglects to touch one of the bases he can be called out and the run is negated.

Answer 7

If you hadn't noticed, the best players in the world play in the US. That's been the case for years now. If any good MLB team, keeping all of its foreign-born players, were to play a Japanese or Latin professional team, the MLB team would easily win a 7 game series. The talent level, especially in the pitching, of the MLB teams are just too high.

Answer 8

there is another country that does have a baseball team have u forgotten the blue jays, the reason the world series is call that is because players come from all over the world

Answer 9

Well, Canada is in it. I imagine it's mostly ambitious marketing. MLB wants to represent itself as *the* world organization. It might sound overly ambitious in 2003, since there are so many other leagues around the world in addition to the American League and National League. But it wasn't such a stretch 100 years ago. At the time, the two MLB leagues were the two big leagues. And having a few Canadian teams makes them international

Answer 10

Because when baseball started the world series was sponsered and covered by a paper called the world and the name just stuck