Congratulations To World Champion Chicago Cubs
- Thread starter Steve Williams
- Start date
World Champions? LOL
Gotta love you Americans.
Living outside the US and for decades, I have followed 3 Major Pro Sports in the US, I noted that the title World Champions is not a empty boast but an assumed reality. AFAIK, there is only one pro baseball league outside the US, that is in Japan. Unless there is a belief that a champion team from the Japanese league can beat even the Division Champions of the MLB, the title World Champions can safely be used for the World Series.
Pro basketball? Many pro leagues in the world, but does any avid NBA fan believe those teams can beat the champions in the NBA? I assume not. On the other hand, I would have no problems hearing world champions in Cricket, rugby and soccer, and probably it's because I don't follow them.
How about the ICC Cricket World Cup that you guys down under have won 5 times
Well, the ICC cricket world cup is a 14 country tournament after an additional 8 countries not qualifying after a pre tournament.
The US baseball is a domestic competition.
We have our our unique Australian rules football where it is only played in Australia. It is a domestic sport and the winners are named as the Australian champions. We would never call ourselves world champions.
Living outside the US and for decades, I have followed 3 Major Pro Sports in the US, I noted that the title World Champions is not a empty boast but an assumed reality. AFAIK, there is only one pro baseball league outside the US, that is in Japan. Unless there is a belief that a champion team from the Japanese league can beat even the Division Champions of the MLB, the title World Champions can safely be used for the World Series.
On the other hand, I would have no problems hearing world champions in Cricket, rugby and soccer, and probably it's because I don't follow them.
Thanks, you have reinforced my point. All these American sports are domestic competitions with no other countries playing in the competition.
Soccer for example is played competively in 211 counties around the world, or which 32 play in the world cup. This is truly a world game.
Well, the ICC cricket world cup is a 14 country tournament after an additional 8 countries not qualifying after a pre tournament.
The US baseball is a domestic competition.
We have our our unique Australian rules football where it is only played in Australia. It is a domestic sport and the winners are named as the Australian champions. We would never call ourselves world champions.
Thanks, you have reinforced my point. All these American sports are domestic competitions with no other countries playing in the competition.
Soccer for example is played competively in 211 counties around the world, or which 32 play in the world cup. This is truly a world game.
Minor point, US Baseball does have one non-US team, the Toronto Blue Jays who have won two world series. Also used to have the Montreal Expos. Larry
Yes I know.
We have a NZ team in the national soccer and rugby league comps. Both are known as Australian domestic comps.Cheers
Oh we are back to who's got the biggest argument. LOL England, India, South Africa, Pakistan to name a few.
I will let you google the rest to see if you have ever heard of those countries - its a big big world outside of the USA
Oh we are back to who's got the biggest argument. LOL England, India, South Africa, Pakistan to name a few.
I will let you google the rest to see if you have ever heard of those countries - its a big big world outside of the USA
World Series was named for the New York World newspaper, mate.
Hi
hat off to the Cubs! They did it!
I still enjoy baseball and actively follow American Sports, Huge NFL and NBA fan.
Baseball is a game played in very few countries and Major League baseball has only teams from two countries (USA and Canada). The famous World Series is not watched by many outside the US.. perhaps in Canada, Japan, Korea and a handful of Latin American countries (DR, Cuba, Venezuela, Mexico and .... ????)... So World Champion is a stretch.
Same for the NFL. American football is played in even smaller number of countries: USA and Canada and where else .. England? So Those are not World Championship however much we may want to spin it and argue .. That the NE Patriots won last year is lost on the World ... No one outside the US cares ... Tom brady is not known outside the USA and Canada ,,
Compare that to the effect of a game like Soccer ... or Basketball
As for Cricket in term of number of people interested in it .. The very weight of India makes of it an important game .. India alone is 1.4 Billion people .. It is a phenomenon in the West Indies
It can also be argued that Rugby is watched by a lot more people than American football ... Have a look at this Wikipedia Article .. Seems most of the World plays that game
A case could be made for the NBA it is an American League, true, but the Championship is watched the World over and the game is played in most of the world .. THe NBA at this point represents the highest form of basketball and the level is extremely high. It could be argued and easily would be proven right that the worst team in the NBA would beat any other team in the world from any league in a 7-game series even when playing under World basketball rules ...
So we may have to swallow the American pride here.. This is not a world Series by any stretch
hat off to the Cubs! They did it!
I still enjoy baseball and actively follow American Sports, Huge NFL and NBA fan.
Baseball is a game played in very few countries and Major League baseball has only teams from two countries (USA and Canada). The famous World Series is not watched by many outside the US.. perhaps in Canada, Japan, Korea and a handful of Latin American countries (DR, Cuba, Venezuela, Mexico and .... ????)... So World Champion is a stretch.
Same for the NFL. American football is played in even smaller number of countries: USA and Canada and where else .. England? So Those are not World Championship however much we may want to spin it and argue .. That the NE Patriots won last year is lost on the World ... No one outside the US cares ... Tom brady is not known outside the USA and Canada ,,
Compare that to the effect of a game like Soccer ... or Basketball
As for Cricket in term of number of people interested in it .. The very weight of India makes of it an important game .. India alone is 1.4 Billion people .. It is a phenomenon in the West Indies
It can also be argued that Rugby is watched by a lot more people than American football ... Have a look at this Wikipedia Article .. Seems most of the World plays that game
A case could be made for the NBA it is an American League, true, but the Championship is watched the World over and the game is played in most of the world .. THe NBA at this point represents the highest form of basketball and the level is extremely high. It could be argued and easily would be proven right that the worst team in the NBA would beat any other team in the world from any league in a 7-game series even when playing under World basketball rules ...
So we may have to swallow the American pride here.. This is not a world Series by any stretch
Spending a month a year living outside the US has given me a different perspective on sports. In London, one has to get the International Herald Tribune or USA Today to see any US sports scores. Football (soccer) is the international sport. In Hong Kong, the Premiere League is followed closely in the English language papers, not US baseball, football, basketball. Because of having the two best football players in the world, La Liga is also followed, at least Barcelona and Real Madrid. Test matches in cricket and Rugby also get a lot of coverage. I actually understand how scoring works in cricket, where "innings" is both singular and plural.
Larry
Larry
I agree with your observation, Larry. That makes me wonder what if the Philippines was colonized by the UK rather than the US. I guess you grow up with what you are fed with. We grew up with Colgate, Frigidaire, Coke, etc. such that they became common nouns than proper nouns. We grew with basketball rather than soccer that's why we here love the game we are a basketball crazy nation and many find soccer 'boring'.
The 'world' is actually your world. The worst time for us to travel to Hong Kong, Japan, or Singapore is during the NBA playoffs. Hotel TVs show lots of soccer, cricket, and Japanese baseball games but never an NBA basketball game. My friend had to enter a betting bar with an admission fee just to watch the Finals a few years ago in Singapore.Similar threads
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