Last week in class we read and article by Alan Klein that dealt with the World Baseball classic and it really got me to think about the term "World Champions". The term "World Champions" is thrown around in American sports every year when one team will win the championship of that respective sport- (i.e. Super Bowl, NBA Championship, World Series, etc.) Now that I am typing out the examples, I believe that baseball is the worst offender. I say this because their championship IS called the World Series when teams only from America (and one from Canada) compete in it. In other sports their respective championship is also referred to as a world championship when in reality, the only other country competing within American sports is usually Canadian teams. Furthermore, that only is in baseball and hockey since the Vancouver Grizzlies have been gone from Canada since before I was in Jr. High.
A new title name/ "nickname" should be given to these championships because the rest of the world does not compete with us in these sports. College football and soccer seem to have the right take on this; in college sports, the highest achievement is the National Championship, and it is never referred to a the world title, or world champions. Professional soccer has different championships depending on what are they play in. For instance, teams in Europe compete in the UEFA Cup, which is the European championship. The same thing goes for North and South America- they too have their own respective championship. Then every four years they have the World Cup which really is the World Championship. It is just irritating because it seems as though we as Americans believe that since we have the superior athletes in certain sports we are entitled to call the biggest championships in America, the "World Championship", especially since many other countries do not even follow it.
While I am not a big baseball fan, baseball does have the right idea with many countries competing for one coveted championship that can be classified as a "World Championship".
No comments:
Post a Comment