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November 17, 2009
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| A Korean teacher recently told me a D.J. on a local radio station asked a question while the Korean Series was on, like: “Why is it called the World Series?” The “correct” answer was “because of America’s arrogance.” While it seems that the Koreans who have the strongest opinions about the United States are the ones who know the least about it, it was an interesting point. Should the “World Series” change its name? Is there enough competition from professional leagues outside of the U.S.? Is the World Series really a world championship? Jacob writes, “The best athletes in the world go to the United States to train and play. It has been this way for over 50 years. The national leagues in America accept players from all over the world (whoever is the best). With people from all over the world playing in a single league, it can still be called a world series.” “I think that anyone who wants MLB to change the name of their championship should go home and cry to mommy,” writes Vespasian. “It’s the World Series. Deal with it. BTW I am not American.” “Major League Baseball teams are ‘North American,’ but their players represent many countries. Close to 30 percent of players are not from the United States,” J writes. “Do the people in Korea who complain about American ‘arrogance’ know that so many players are not from North America? Korean and Japanese baseball leagues place limits on the number of foreign players that can play on a single team. The ‘arrogant’ American teams do not have such xenophobic policies. The MLB and its fans are more focused on the skill of players.” “MLB is a collection of the best players in the world, period,” writes okoko. “Those [players] make up a collection of the best baseball clubs in the world. It is only fitting that the championship be for the world’s best baseball club.” As it is a sport born in the U.S., does it have the right to call its championships the world championships? Writes baekgom84, “I’m Australian and don’t have a problem with the name ‘World Series.’ Not necessarily because it involves the ‘best teams’ in the world, but because it is a sport primarily developed in America and I think the governing body of baseball in America has the exclusive right to label it the ‘World’ series.” “When the top players start playing in ‘non’-North American leagues, then we can start to think about your question,” writes Craig. “Should the top sumo wrestler in Japan not be considered the world champion, despite there being sumo in other countries?” asks Nathan Schwartzman. “National teams like those which compete in the Olympics or WBC [World Baseball Classic] are really just assemblages of talent tossed together for brief periods of time. Comparing national teams and professional teams is really apples and oranges.” “On one hand as an American, it does sound a little presumptuous to call one nation’s championship the ‘World Series,’” writes Chris in South Korea. “The closest thing we’ve had to an honest-to-God world championship was the Olympics for the longest time. Now the WBC (assuming we see it again) seems poised to become the de facto championship.” But he reminds us of a good point, the teams that compete in the World Series are professional organizations, not national teams. He writes, “Korea, Japan, Mexico, et al., field a team that could take on the Yankees, the World Series Champions. Beat them in a best-of-seven series after a season of 162 games and multiple playoff series. Then talk to me about the name when you go home crying after losing 4 out of 5.” *Readers are welcome to send suggestions for topics that they wish to be covered or blogs that they would like to see featured in this column. Please e-mail us at: estyle@joongang.co.kr. These comments were collected by Brian Deutsch from recent blog posts. To read more, visit his blog Brian in Jeollanam-do at: http://briandeutsch.blogspot.com/. By Brian Deutsch Contributing writer |
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