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"world champions"

jrmagic

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Get this Canadian hockey stuff out of a perfectly good USA baseball thread. Until the NFL came along, it was our national game. I read that Steelers vs Saints had a bigger TV rating than World Series game 4. I don't know how game 5 did against MNF. Peyton Manning draws a lot of eyeballs but the pitching matchup for game 5 is as good as it gets.


I'm sure MNF did much better. Baseball is much more a of a regional sport than football. Unless you have 2 top market teams in the WS it will get little attention outside those regions.
 

4aprice

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I'm surprised nobody has mentioned where the term World Series came from. As I understand it there was a paper back in the late 1800's called the World. They sponsered a series of games between the National League and American League champions. Thats where the name World Series came from, it has nothing to do with the actual world.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ.
 

snowmonster

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I'm surprised nobody has mentioned where the term World Series came from. As I understand it there was a paper back in the late 1800's called the World. They sponsered a series of games between the National League and American League champions. Thats where the name World Series came from, it has nothing to do with the actual world.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ.

Apparently, the connection of the World Series to the New York World Telegram is a myth:

http://www.lifeslittlemysteries.com/world-series-origin-1126/

If you're talking about the late 19th and early 20th century, whoever won the World Series really was the world champion since no one outside the country played baseball. I guess it's the same as calling the champion of Aussie rules football the world champion since no one else plays it. Since other countries now play baseball, the World Series name is more of a misnomer. I always called the WS winner the World Series Champion and not World Champion. But, that's just me.

Of course, the truly international baseball competitions are the Olympics and the World Baseball Classic. Aside from winning gold in 2000 when professionals were first introduced, the US has lost out to Cuba and South Korea. Then there's the WBC, both of which were won by Japan.
 

mondeo

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Since other countries now play baseball, the World Series name is more of a misnomer.
But all their top players are in MLB. If the Japanese league champions, Dominican league champions, etc., played the Giants, do you honestly think they'd have a chance? Or any of the teams that made the playoffs, for that matter.
 

dmc

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You people argue about the dumbest things... Just sayin... :)
 

deadheadskier

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so, do the champions of Major League Soccer call themselves World Champions????

cause that would be hilarious
 

snowmonster

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If the Japanese league champions, Dominican league champions, etc., played the Giants, do you honestly think they'd have a chance? Or any of the teams that made the playoffs, for that matter.

There's only one way to find out.

These arguments remind me of when England was the premiere football power on the planet. Their clubs would go abroad to show the world how it was done then thrash other teams. When the first three World Cups came along, England didn't even bother to send a team because the opposition was deemed inferior. Then, England participates in the 1950 Cup and gets beaten by the USA.
 
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mondeo

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so, do the champions of Major League Soccer call themselves World Champions????

cause that would be hilarious
They could if they went on to win the FIFA Club World Cup.

There aren't any legitimate competitive leagues elsewhere in the world compared to the MLB, NBA, NHL, or NFL. The top players come here. That isn't the case in soccer, where there there are multiple highly competitive club leagues around the world, which is why the Club World Cup exists. In a few years, if the KHL is successful at buying more top level players away from the NHL like they're trying to do, then maybe the Stanley Cup needs to be awarded to the winner of a playoff between the two champions of those two leagues. But for now, realistically, the best team in those four leagues is the best non-national team in the world.
 
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