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Why It's Called the World Series

Every year baseball fans set aside thoughts of work, home and family to get down to the serious business. That is, of rooting for their favorite baseball teams in the MLB World Series!

No matter which teams survive the regular baseball season or the pennant playoffs, true baseball fans will have a thrill watching the top teams battle.

If the New York Yankees are playing, which is not unusual, there will be extra excitement as the fans root for whoever is playing against them (unless, of course, you happen to be a Yankee fan.)

Why is it called the World Series?

Teams don't come from all over the world to play in the world series, so where did the name come from?

As a popular legend tells the tale. it was the New York World newspaper which sponsored the first games in the early 1900s and the baseball series took on the name of the sponsor.

While that may be an easy explanation... it isn't true. Read, for example, an in-depth article at Snopes.com on the topic with a quote from the Baseball Hall of Fame that debunks the story as an urban myth.

Although the Cuban Leagues began in 1878, and could have been included in the American games, the climate of the time made it extremely easy to think of the United States as THE WORLD of baseball - and the winner of the American championship was the World Champion of Baseball.

Today, no matter what the roots of the name are, the end result is a game that does get worldwide attention. Take the 2004 Boston Red Sox victory, for example, that won over millions of new fans as international headlines blared the news worldwide. (Sure, many people outside the United States may not have understand the game - but who doesn't want to root for an underdog?)

Today, as professional scouts travel to Japan, Europe, Canada and South America to recruit A-list players, the sport of baseball has truly grown up. And, as one of America's most enduring international exports, the sport's once-naive outlook as one of "world" importance is no longer too far off base.

also see -> Little League World Series