The Phillies' Park Chan-ho was the first Korean to play in the Major Leagues and
A little while ago one of my Korean teachers said that a local radio personality had a trivia question about Major League Baseball's championship series one morning, something like "Why is it called the World Series?" The "correct" answer was something like "because of America's arrogance." That's convoluted, but the gist of the exchange is accurate.
I tried to explain, in extremely broken Korean, that the name has been around for a while, back before Asians started thinking about having the children who would think about having the children who would first play baseball over here. You'll find a history on Wikipedia and in a 2005 Snopes.com entry.
Though it seems like the people in Korea commenting most vocally on the United States and its culture are invariably the ones who know the least about it, this was an interesting point. While it's safe to say Major League Baseball has the best players in the world playing in it, and certainly has the biggest salaries, it's entirely a North American league. Regardless of how you think particular teams would fare against each other---for example, the Philadelphia Phillies versus Gwangju's Kia Tigers, not a Korean national team---no tournament exists to decide that each year's MLB team is the best in the world, so it's presumptuous to use the name "World Series." I'm sure there are Koreans who feel slighted by the name, considering how well their national team has done in recent Olympics and World Baseball Classic tournaments. Here's one blogger who says that even though the name dates back to the 19th-century, it says something about American pride both then and now that it's still in circulation, and he has a point.
The diplomatic thing to do would be find a new name. Not to appease Korean fans, but to not look ridiculous and arrogant. Your thoughts?
27 comments:
in regards to the photo caption:
wasn't there a korean player with the arizona diamondbacks when they went to the world series a few years back? like 2001 or 2002 or so? kim somethingorother, i think he pitched side-arm. don't know much about park chan ho, but his wiki says that this year is his first trip to the world series.
That would be Kim Byung-Hyun... Arizona Diamondbacks... 2001 season.
I hate to find myself agreeing with belligerent Korean netizens, but they do have a point. Americans have a habit of referring to national championships in sports that are to a large degree exclusive American sports as 'world championships' (e.g.: basketball, baseball and football). Now you can either be annoyed by this quirk, like a Korean netizen, or bemused, like John Cleese, who once said that one of the major differences between America and Britain was that when Brits hosted world championships...they invited other countries to the event.
Thanks Lancity, I can't believe I screwed that up.
Koreans need to grow some thicker skin. The best athletes in the world go to the United States to train and play. It has been this way for over fifty 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.
Its the World Series.
Deal with it.
BTW I am not American.
Please respect our unique naming culture. Thank you for reading my comment.
Eh... whatever. We were there first. Like the moon. Where's the Russian flag? Where's the Korean flag?
That's right... It's OUR moon. Stop looking at it or I'll charge you money!
Apathetic to crap like this.
Major League Baseball teams are "North American," but their players represent many countries. Close to 30% of players are not from the United States:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_current_Major_League_Baseball_players_by_nationality
"American" baseball is very international. 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.
The best baseball players from around the world come to the United States to play professionally. The level of competition is unmatched by any other pro baseball league.
Frankly, I see no problem whatsoever with calling it the "World Series."
I'll just say that there isn't, so far as I know, a widespread movement in Korea to change the name. If there were, I don't think I'd give it positive coverage (similar to the "Sea of Japan" naming, um, "controversy"). I bring it up here because I heard it second-hand from my Korean teacher, and because I happen to live in Korea. And, I guess, because people are paying attention to the Series b/c of Park Chan-ho.
For all I know, people are raising such concerns in other countries as well, and I don't want to make it look like this is Korean netizens getting worked up about it.
You are all wrong. I have maps dating back to the three kingdoms period that refer to what the arrogant Americans call "The World Series," as "The north American tourament to determine the best yagoo team."
북 아매리칸 야구 시압. (Korean most likely wrong, but you have to remember that the three kingdoms predated the Korean written language.)
BTW, did anyone see the video of Park Chan Ho throwng spit balls?
Man, I've been saying this for years.
I also take exception with people that call baseball a sport, which it isn't. It is, and will always be, a pass time.
Drives me insane that people keep calling it a "sport."
The World Series may take its name from historical accident, but it is a reminder that baseball was created in the US, was spread around the world by American missionaries and soldiers. It is an American cultural product and holds an important place in American self-identity. We have the historical right, I think, to keep the name.
After all, there is that quote by Gerald Early, "I think there are only three things America will be known for 2,000 years from now when they study this civilization: the Constitution, jazz music and baseball."
Isn't this the series that used to be sponsored by The World News? Are the winners called the world champions, or the World Series champions? The one refers to the best team in the world and the one to the winners of a tournament that just happens to include "The World". If so, then they name might be silly, but at least it is legitimate, unlike "football" that claims to be the actual world champions despite no other county’s teams being allowed to compete.
I was going to comment on this, but then I read down to J's comment and he said it perfectly. MLB is collection of the best players in the world.(period) Those best players in the world make up a collection of the best baseball clubs in the world. It is only fitting that the championship be for the worlds best baseball club. 40% of MLB players are foreign born. Half of the yankees starting line up was foreign born.(6of10). This is an american game get over....with that said its still one of the most inclusive sports ever.
I agree with Vespian and I am not an American. AFAIK the term came from the original sponsor of the event, a newspaper called "The World". Until recently in Australia we had the World Series Cup in Cricket, in which three countries, including Australia, would play. It was similarly a bit of a misnomer as it didn't include (by its nature) all of the world's cricket-playing nations. People who obsess about such things are obviously in need of something better to do and should get some perspective as this case is hardly the best example of American arrogance.
Jacob wrote:
Koreans need to grow some thicker skin.
This is by no means a Korean-only thought process. My Japanese friends here in Hawaii say much the same thing (I just had this conversation with "M" when the Angels were playing Boston). And of course, the first time I ever heard anybody point out this odd word choice, it was Americans.
J wrote:
"American" baseball is very international. Do the people in Korea who complain about American "arrogance" know that so many players are not from North America?
Among those North Americans would be the Cubans, Dominicans, Mexicans, Nicaraguans, Arubans, Hondurans, Panamanians, Costa Ricans, Puerto Ricans, and of course, the Americans and the Canadians. Of course, it's still an international sport if you consider all these players.
Mike wrote:
That's right... It's OUR moon. Stop looking at it or I'll charge you money!
Oh, how wrong you are. ;)
Anyway, MLB's got teams in the USA and USA-Lite (i.e., Canada), so that's World-y enough for me.
When the top player start playing in 'non' north american leagues, then we can start to think about your question.
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 have the exclusive right to label it the 'World' series. Whether or not it was just named after the newspaper of the same name, there's a kind of audaciousness to it that I like, and which I think in the case of Americans is often misunderstood as bald-faced arrogance.
As for them being the 'best'.. well it's almost certainly true, but there are compelling arguments against it. Japan and Korea, easily the best two teams in the WBC this year, were comprised of mostly domestic talent. As for having all the best players, it's pretty interesting that Darvish has declared his desire to stay in Japan.
"AFAIK the term came from the original sponsor of the event, a newspaper called "The World"."
Aaron, get thee hence to snopes.com!
Y'know, I'm kind of torn. On one hand as an American, it DOES sound a little presumptuous to call one nation's championship the 'World Series'. The closest thing we've had to an honest-to-God world championship was the Olympics for the longest time. Now the World Baseball Classic (assuming we see it again) seems poised to become the defacto championship.
But what's in a name? If the WBC becomes the REAL world championship, does it really matter what the Americans call their baseball championship? This is the same planet that has Miss and Mister Universe - no aliens have registered any complaints to my knowledge about Earth's presumptuousness.
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.
As Bobby Valentine said, professional teams such as the Nippon Ham Fighters a few years ago could have beat the World Series champions from that year: Chicago White Sox.
It would be presumptuous to think that any MLB team would defeat any foreign team in a series. Even with a 7-game series, that wouldn't necessarily be enough to declare a winner. I think a lot of North American fans would be surprised at how well Japan and Korea and Cuba can play ball. I think that a Japanese team could certainly beat an American MLB team in a series head-to-head.
Should the top sumo wrestler in Japan not be considered the world champion, despite there being sumo in other countries?
National teams like those which compete in the Olympics or WBC are really just assemblages of talent tossed together for brief periods of time. Comparing national teams and professional teams is really apples and oranges.
Chris in South Korea wrote:
On one hand as an American, it DOES sound a little presumptuous to call one nation's championship the 'World Series'.
It's two nations' championship (no matter what you may have heard, Canada is a country). The Toronto Bluejays have won the World Series twice, and the Montreal Expos might have one once, in 1994, had the strike not gotten the Series canceled.
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.
I'm not so sure they'd go home crying. The excuse for the American team in the WBC is that the US really didn't care all that much, but it seems a conveniently engineered excuse.
bonzi3421 wrote:
I think that a Japanese team could certainly beat an American MLB team in a series head-to-head.
If this were an annual event, I think the Americans would win most of the time, but probably not all of the time. Japan would likely win at least a few, and maybe Korea or Taiwan on occasion.
But I think the point to be made here is that if there really were such a series, national teams would change their strategy and their play. With a truly open tournament, maybe some countries with a cricket tradition would start focusing on baseball as well. There'd be exhibition games and other friendlies, and the "lesser teams" would learn from the experience. After a while, it would no longer be the American team's series to lose.
Nathan Schwartzman wrote:
Should the top sumo wrestler in Japan not be considered the world champion, despite there being sumo in other countries?
I'm not so sure about that, not as long as foreign participation in sumo (e.g., unofficial limitations on the number of gaijin who can be in a heya) remains.
I wrote:
I'm not so sure about that, not as long as foreign participation in sumo (e.g., unofficial limitations on the number of gaijin who can be in a heya) remains.
I meant not as long as it remains restricted.
I dont think there is anything wrong with calling the MLB finals series the "World Series"
Now before you flame me, I'm Australian, while I think its a bit presumptuous, arrogant and ignorant of US Sports Bodies but "World Series" has been a tradition since the 1800's.
Changing an iconic name such as that would be a stupid move.
The issue I believe most people have as do I, is that the winner of many US Sporting Finals are dubbed World Champions. They have the worlds best players...? thats debatable. But as a whole the NBA and MLB can boast to have the worlds best. But by competing in a purely North American based league in no way makes them World Championships.
And the NFL??? please only 2 countries play this with any athletic prowess - World Champions my ass. It would be like the Aussies playing our national sport AFL (Aussie Rules Football) and calling ourselves world champs coz we can. We are the only country in the world to play this professionally and as a matter of fact it originated from only one state. Yes it was primarily played in only one state. It would be like if baseball was only played in Texas.
So "World Series" can stay - just remove the stupid "World Champions" title.
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