Originally Posted By: twosleepy
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)


Isn't it called the World Series because it was played at the World Stadium?

I know it is the favourite sport of Japan. But it still remains true that very few countries play it much or watch it, compared to other truly world sports like football, basketball or even motor racing. The world does not love the sport by any meaningful definition of the word 'world'.

Measured by the number of countries that play it or have it as their number one game, the most popular is of course football (soccer). However, to restore some bragging rights to the good ole US of A, the second most widespread sport (by number of countries) would almost certainly be be an American sport, namely basketball.

Now, if we are talking about spectating rather than participating, the most popular by a long way would still be soccer. But the next most popular (by population, not by number of countries playing it) would be cricket (believe it or not)! Over 3 billion people watch cricket, since it is the most popular sport of the Indian subcontinent (where half the world's population live) plus the former British Commonwealth countries (with the exception of Canada where ice hockey reigns supreme!).

Baseball a World game? Well, maybe, but it wouldn't be in the top ten I'd bet, by most ways of measuring it.