History of the World Series

The World Series is over a hundred years old, starting in 1903 as a contest between the National League and the American League. This sporting event, usually held in October, but not this year, and sometimes called the Fall Classic, has already infringed upon the territory of the next athletic contest run-up with the football season, which has already begun.

This exciting, riveting, seat-of-the-pants, 3-hour baseball drama plays out on television but never gets the kind of love football gets. Baseball is supposed to be the national pastime, but the major religious holiday seems to be the Super Bowl. Football seems to be more designed-for-television with large individuals inflicting physical harm on others tempestuously.

Whence came the name “World Series?” Does it suggest that this is the championship competition for baseball anywhere in the world, across the entire planet? Canada occasionally gets included, but:

• What do Japanese baseball players think of this?
• Does the World Series extend off-planet?
• Will we have to play Mars in a Worlds’ Series?
• And what’s the deal with the World Series of Poker?
• Or the World Series of Beer Pong?

Originally called “The Championship of the United States,” it became the “World’s…