With the US team again doing less than stellar in the second World Baseball Classic this year, it's time for Major League Baseball to change the arrogant and grossly inaccurate "World Series" name for its championship series.
Japan won the first World Baseball Classic in 2006 and beat the US team in a semifinal game in 2009 [the US also lost to Venezuela twice and Puerto Rico once]. The US team didn't even make the four-team finals tournament in 2006, having lost to Mexico, South Korea and Canada.
So arguments can be made that there could be better teams in other countries. We will not know until there is a true "world series" playoff involving teams in the US, Japan, Mexico, South Korea and other nations.
While people in other sports such as the NBA and NFL sometimes refer to their champions as "world champs," they do not call their final championship series a "world" series. Major League Baseball calling its championship series the World Series dates back to the 1880s. Some call that arrogance on the part of top baseball officials, others just call it a tradition that would be too confusing and demeaning to change. Whatever, it is inaccurate, to say the least, to label MLB's champion as "world champs." And it should be changed.
Steven Wells with England's Guardian newspaper made a good case for the same campaign last year here.
ReplyDeleteI like these comments from Wells in particular: "England has what is considered by many (well, by the English) to be the world's best soccer league. But its champions would be laughed at if they claimed to be champions of the world.....Then there's the argument that because players from 20 other countries play in MLB, this alone legitimises the world champion label. Players from 83 different countries currently play in the Premier League. But this no more makes Manchester United world champions than you being top dog USAian makes you World King Emperor (despite what your predecessor might have thought)."
And this from someone who commented on the article: "Given how few americans can actually place the rest of the world on a map, their delusions are both understandable and worth continuing. Imagine how much trouble they'd cause if they could find some of these places!"
Good points.....Are you listening, MLB?
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