Baseball is played in many other countries, and is also the national sport of the following nations (not, however, included in the World Series): Cuba, Republica Dominicana, Nicaragua, Panama, Puerto Rico, Taiwan and Venezuela. It is also the most popular sport in Japan. The world loves the sport, but the World Series only loves North America! So Zed, the answer lies in the early days of the sport, which is, indeed, American, and therefore the "world championship series" consisted of American teams, because they were the only ones around! It got shortened to "world series" later. :0)