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.
