Why is the championship in American baseball called the world series?? yet only 2 countries have teams in it?
613808
As in all things, we Americans are self-conceited jerks.  If it doesn't happen within our shores, we seem to think it doesn't really matter.
322127
They didn't. They played in the League Championship Series. After the Red Sox beat the Yankees in the LCS, they played (and beat) the Cardinals in the World Series. But the media downplayed the World Series because the LCS was so dramatic, in their eyes.
789915
You said it!\nAnd then they have "World" Series tournaments for Baseball....
1106672
Well, I agree with the playoff teams, but I don't see either of those teams in the "World" Series. It's a rematch of the 1968 "World" Series. St. Louis Cardinals and Detroit Tigers.
177936
The New York Yankees!!! With 26 Titles, and 39 Appearances.\n\nThe World Series is the championship series of Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada, the culmination of the sport's postseason each October. It is played between the pennant winner of the American League and the pennant winner of the National League. The Series winner is determined through a best-of-seven playoff (except in 1903, 1919, 1920 and 1921 when the winner was determined through a best-of-nine playoff) and is awarded the World Series Trophy, as well as World Series rings. Baseball has employed various championship formulas since the 1850s. The modern World Series has been an annual event since 1903, with the exceptions of 1904 and 1994.\n\nThe New York Yankees have the most World Series titles, with 26 championships through the 2005 season. Eight teams, all established since 1961, have never won a World Series title: the Texas Rangers, Houston Astros, San Diego Padres, Washington Nationals, Milwaukee Brewers, Seattle Mariners, Colorado Rockies, and Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Of those eight teams, only three have appeared in the Series: Milwaukee, San Diego, and Houston. The Chicago Cubs have gone the longest between titles, having last won the World Series in 1908.
577718
The World Series came from the New York World newspaper during the 19th century when Major League Baseball was started, because they owned the rights to it, it was call the New York World Series, then later shorten to the World Series.\n\nTry using another way to put down Americans, 'cause this one seems a little invalid now doesn't it---okay now I'm getting a little arrogant, he he.
992655
it differs from cup to cup, as does the world's country count.  There is no set amount of slots to participate.  any country may participate and the elimination rounds just keep paring them down like any play-off series.
889227
International impact, and explanation of the term "World" Series\n\nThe title of this championship is confusing to some international readers, because the World Series is confined to the champions of two baseball leagues that currently operate only in the United States and Canada.\n\nThe explanation is that when the term "World's Championship Series" was first used in the 1880s, baseball was almost exclusively confined to North America, especially at a highly skilled (and paid) level. Thus it was understood that the winner of the major league championship was the best baseball team in the world. The title of this event was soon shortened to "World's Series" and later to "World Series".\n\nThe United States continued to be the zenith of professional baseball some decades into the 20th Century. The first Japanese professional baseball efforts began in 1920. The current Japanese leagues date from the late 1940s. Various Latin American leagues also formed around that time.\n\nBy the 1990s, baseball was played at a highly skilled level in many countries, resulting in a strong international flavor to the Series, as many of the best players from the Pacific Rim, Latin America, the Caribbean, and elsewhere now play on Major League rosters. The notable exception is Cuban nationals, due to the political situation between the USA and Cuba (despite that barrier, over the years a number of Cuba's finest ballplayers have defected to the United States to play in the American professional leagues). Players from the Japanese Leagues also have a more difficult time coming to the Major Leagues because they must first play 10 years in Japan before becoming free agents.\n\nEarly in 2006, Major League Baseball conducted the inaugural World Baseball Classic, to establish a "true" world's championship in the way the term is normally used for other international sports. Teams of professional players from 16 nations participated, and Japan won the first World Baseball Classic championship. Olympic baseball was instituted as a medal sport in 1992, but in 2005 the International Olympic Committee voted to eliminate baseball, and it will be off the Olympic program in 2012.\n\nThe World Series itself retains a US-oriented atmosphere. The title of the event is often presented on television as merely a "brand name" in the same sense as the "Super Bowl", and thus the term "World Series Championship" is sometimes used. However, the origin of the term lives on, as with these words of Frank Thomas in the Chicago White Sox victory celebration in 2005: "We're world's champions, baby!" At the close of the 2006 Series, Commissioner Bud Selig pronounced the St. Louis Cardinals "champions of the world". Likewise, the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine for November 6, 2006, features Series MVP David Eckstein and is subtitled "World Champions".\n\nA recent myth has arisen that the "World" in "World Series" came about because the New York World newspaper sponsored it. There is no evidence at all supporting that hypothesis.
757001
Go to ESPN and ask Swaub that question (I know I spelled his name wrong).  The only thing I do know is that the two times the Florida Marlins (MLB) went to the play-offs they won the World Series.  In 1997 and 2003.  The 1st and second time they went to the play-offs.
120921
No, the sport has spread enough that the USA would be slaughtered by a team of World All Stars.  The World Baseball Classic is different because each nation has some players but to consolidate them all against the USA wouldn't work so lets stick to NL vs AL.  I don't care for the homefield in the WS stipulation though.  The team with the best record should have homefield with the exception of a Division winner vs the Wild Card the division winner should always have homefield.
315274
Becasue back in the early 1900s, the U.S. was the only country in which people were playing baseball professionally and in competitve forms.  The champions back then were actually the best in the world.  So when they named it, there weren't thinking hmmm....100 years from now people from Japan and Latin America will be playing the sport and importing a lot of our best players.\nNow people from other countries play the sport, but I don't think there's really any reason why to change the name from the "World Series" to the "American Series".
1175379
There were rumors that the NY World newspaper back in the 1800s coined it as thus. \n\nhttp://www.snopes.com/business/names/worldseries.asp\n\nIt just morphed into that from the start. I wouldn't worry about it as back in the 1940s even when Wolves beat the touring Moscow Dynamo, the headlines declared that team soccer champions of the world. It's just hyperbole that is based in a pre-Internet past where the world was something that existed mainly on any nation's shores and no one grasped the global nature of sports yet. \n\nThe winner of the World Series would be the de facto best club team in baseball in most fans' opinion. Whenever MLB All-Star teams or even club teams tour Japan, they win the series (only lost one series I believe) and these are exhibition series not really taken seriously by MLBers.
1070380
Right now the only nation that can really compete is Japan. In Japan, players must play 8 years with their team before they can be free agents and sign in the U.S. This rule keeps their league strong, and in tact. We saw how good their players are in the World Baseball Classic and I agree, you cannot call it a "World" Series if you do not include Japan and at least the Cuban champ. \n\nThe Dominican, Venezuelan, Puerto Rican, and Mexican leagues all have major and minor league players, and are considered Winter Leagues, or essentially a head start on the Spring Training.
995523
Anything that happens only once every four years is worth getting excited about, especially when the best football players from ALL OVER THE WORLD are there to put up a hell of a show! Besides I got tired of watching the "world" baseball series, "world" NBA championships, "world" (american) football champions. How could they say they're world champions when they only play US teams?!? It's things like these that cause other countries to hate us so much.
1002316
I don't think the Superbowl winner makes a big deal out of being 'world' champs.  \n\nEach NFL team is from a US city, so the game is not "the USA versus the USA" - it's more a case of San Francisco versus New York.  See the difference?\n\nWould be cool someday to see a Superbowl where New York played Paris or Tokyo...
1050044
The World Series is the only true world-sporting event, where the best team plays in the best league with the best players.  Unlike the European Football leagues, they have a league for each country, and elite teams in it so since they don’t all play against each other you may never actually know who the best team is.  In baseball, the cream raises to the top so to speak and the best team wins.  Because MLB will and does find the best players from around the world and have them play in the league, below is a list of some countries that have had players play in the World Series.  \n\n\nAruba, Austria, Australia, Bahamas, Colombia, Cuba, Curacao, Czechoslovakia, Dominican Republic, England, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, Panama, Poland, Russia, Scotland, South Korea, South Vietnam, Spain, Sweden,  Switzerland, Taiwan, Ukraine, Virgin Island, Venezuela, and Wales just to name a few
619628
No World Series champion was crowned.  The players went on strike in August of that year, effectively shutting down the season.  Talks of hiring replacements, picket-crossing, etc came to nothing.  In addition, no division winners were crowned, even though they may have led their division at the point of stoppage.\n\nThere was even talk of having a "player's league" either supplant MLB or exist for the rest of that year in order to allow for a World Series, but the idea never gained much headway.