It's the WORLD series.
Oct. 27th, 2007 09:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lollardfishThere is a certain snarky line of reasoning that sneers at the phrase, "World Series," saying that it is just another typical example of American over-reaching. How could it be the "world" series when only American teams play?
When confronted with this snark, some point out that it was named after the New York World newspaper, but this is a myth.
But the American major leagues do have the best players in the world, and they are increasingly drawn from all over the globe. A Taiwanese pitcher should be in the top-5 for the Cy Young and his struggles in the post-season doomed the Yankees (hooray!). Many major league clubs have recently formed player-development deals in China. There's a fair chance that a Japanese pitcher will be in the top 10 in baseball next year, if he develops over the off-season as I hope he will. Latinos are dominant in all aspects of the game, even as fewer and fewer African-American young athletic stars choose to play baseball (which some people fret about, or say is racism, but I don't see it - I see basketball hoops in African-American parts of town taking the place of baseball fields, and I see young god-like athletes choosing football or basketball. So what?).
Anyway, the Red Sox starting lineup features: 4 white Americans (one of whom is Jewish), 1 half-navajo American, 3 Dominicans (2 of whom are among the best hitters in the game), and one half-puertorican. They have two Japanese pitchers, one of whom was so successful in the last game that he has become (we think) an instant hero in his country, and the other of whom starts tomorrows game as the most popular athlete in Japan (and it's something of a national disgrace that he's only been average this year).
The Rockies have the usual complement of Latinos and Gringos, but one of the latter is the first Canadian pitcher to start a world-series game.
So yeah, it's not a world championship in the way the World Cup in soccer is. But it's certainly an international game.
All of which is to say, go Red Sox!
When confronted with this snark, some point out that it was named after the New York World newspaper, but this is a myth.
But the American major leagues do have the best players in the world, and they are increasingly drawn from all over the globe. A Taiwanese pitcher should be in the top-5 for the Cy Young and his struggles in the post-season doomed the Yankees (hooray!). Many major league clubs have recently formed player-development deals in China. There's a fair chance that a Japanese pitcher will be in the top 10 in baseball next year, if he develops over the off-season as I hope he will. Latinos are dominant in all aspects of the game, even as fewer and fewer African-American young athletic stars choose to play baseball (which some people fret about, or say is racism, but I don't see it - I see basketball hoops in African-American parts of town taking the place of baseball fields, and I see young god-like athletes choosing football or basketball. So what?).
Anyway, the Red Sox starting lineup features: 4 white Americans (one of whom is Jewish), 1 half-navajo American, 3 Dominicans (2 of whom are among the best hitters in the game), and one half-puertorican. They have two Japanese pitchers, one of whom was so successful in the last game that he has become (we think) an instant hero in his country, and the other of whom starts tomorrows game as the most popular athlete in Japan (and it's something of a national disgrace that he's only been average this year).
The Rockies have the usual complement of Latinos and Gringos, but one of the latter is the first Canadian pitcher to start a world-series game.
So yeah, it's not a world championship in the way the World Cup in soccer is. But it's certainly an international game.
All of which is to say, go Red Sox!
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Date: 2007-10-27 05:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-28 01:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-28 01:48 am (UTC)Soccer has more true international layers of competition than any other sport. Brazilian soccer, despite all the talent, pretty much stinks. US soccer, despite all the money, pretty much stinks. And so forth. Everywhere else is a training ground for "The Show" - Europe.
True international competition would be fun. I'd love to see the Red Sox play the winners of the Mexican league and the Japanese league. I enjoyed the World Baseball Championship (or whatever it was called), even though most of the best players from the Major Leagues either didn't play or weren't in game shape, but I suspect they can work that out. It probably won't change the fact that the best players in the world come to "the show" - (North) American Major League Baseball - if they can.
A Japanese reporter just said, via translator, that seeing Dice-K face Kaz Matsui today is a bigger story than their own national championship game.