Press "Enter" to skip to content

What Is Up With The World Series Of Baseball?

Sebastian Langer 0

A lot of people all over the world wonder why the World Series is a USA-only event. How can only teams from one country compete in a tournament to be champions of the world in baseball? The truth of the matter is, the actual world champions would be the team that wins the World Baseball Classic. This is an international tournament, where national teams compete every few years (much like a World Cup).

So, what exactly is the World Series? It’s a championship series of matches that are played between that year’s winners of the American League and the National League. These two leagues fall under the Major Baseball League of both the USA and Canada – meaning not all competing teams are from the same country. It’s still not exactly a world event though.

Where Did The Name Come From?

There is a folk tale that says the name came from the original sponsors of the inaugural event in 1903: the New York World Telegram. The World Telegram was definitely involved in reporting on that first series, but it actually had nothing to do with the naming of it.

The name came from the 1903 owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates, Barney Dreyfuss. He challenged the Boston Red Sox to what he called a “World’s Championship Series”. In that year, the Pirates were sitting on top of the National League and the Red Sox topped the American League. The concept was a hit with the teams and the fans, and the World Series took off in 1905 as a formal annual event.

The name that Dreyfuss used referred back to a previous, similar event back in the 1880s. At that time, the title World Series was used as a simple marketing ploy to make the event seem grander and more enticing to the people.

In fact, the term World Series has been tacked onto a range of different tournaments and events related to baseball. These days, those two words are essentially a synonym for a championship series in the sport. It does, of course, also get used for a number of other sports too. Even the World Series of Poker played at a mobile casino gets to use the title.

Still The World’s Premier Baseball Event

In the eyes of many, the World Series is still the highlight of the baseball world and to take part in it is to be at the pinnacle of the sport. Top players from across the globe flock to the USA and Canada to play in Major League Baseball rather than stay in countries where the local leagues don’t lead to much in terms of international reach or challenges.

The leagues feature players from close to home – countries such as Puerto Rico, Mexico, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic. They also come from further afield – places like Australia, Germany, South Korea, Lithuania and Japan. The latter is actually fast becoming a dominating force in international baseball. The national team has won two of the three World baseball Classic competitions, with the Dominican Republic winning the most recent event.

Comments are closed.