World series?

Question

Why are baseball playoffs called world series ?
what other contries are playing beside US and Canada ?
it's like in the NBA, the winner is world champion. it doesn't make sense only canadian and american teams are playing.
it bothers me and it's like saying that americans are the only one in the world.

Answer 1

When it was named the World Series, we were the only country playing the game.

Therefore it was reasonably assumed that the best team in the U.S. was also the best team in the world.
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Answer 2

After his Pirates had clinched the 1903 National League crown, Pittsburgh owner Barney Dreyfus challenged the Boston Pilgrims champions of the upstart American League, to a "world championship series". The Pilgrims accepted, and the first modern World Series opened at the Huntington Avenue Baseball Grounds in Boston on October 1.

The series was financially and popularly successful, but in 1904 the National League winning Giants refused to play the American League champions. 1905 this led to public and press demands for the resumption of championship series. Prompted by the outcry, Baseballs Nationals Commission officially established the World Series in 1905.

Name goes back to when in 1884 the influential weekly Sporting Life decided to call the victorious team Providence "Champions of the World" for the purpose of hype. Prior to that the series was touted as "for the champions of United States".

From the 1880's- "Champions of the World"

to the 1900's- worlds's series

to the 1920's- World's Series

to the 1930's- World Series (moder form)

As you can see back in 1903 only the United States and Canada was playing baseball so the team that won was the champions of the world. The name stuck so I guess after 100 years no reason to change it.

http://www.rose-hulman.edu/~rickert/BB/wsname.html

If you want the true world baseball champions then you can certainly go with Japan as they beat Cuba in the 2006 World Baseball Classic (WBC) THE 1ST BASEBALL INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION that had MLB players. This tournament had 16 nations and will be held again in 2009. Besides MLB the International Baseball Federation also sanctioned the tournament and featured players from around the world not just from MLB.

Answer 3

I believe there is a world series of Cricket,Poker,Little league...its just the best in the world at that certain thing....besides there are people from all over the world that play baseball...don't take the world so serious

Answer 4

because players from all countries participate in MLB, NFL, and NBA. Even though these leagues are based in the United States (and CA), players from everywhere participate.

Answer 5

It's just another example of our overblown narcissism as a country. We tend to forget that Japan is way into baseball, and that we tend to import many of our star players from a little country called Cuba, LOL.

Answer 6

The same reason why there is a Miss Universe competition.

Answer 7

when first played we were the only one to play these games.

Answer 8

Narcissism...