A few questions on baseball !

[eclipse]

Hi Guys

Now i do realise that this is gonna get me into a whole lot of trouble asking this BUT!

Ive asked before if there is someone who can briefly explain the fundamentals of baseball, but no luck yet.

Or maybe you can point me to a site that explains the rules and terminology?

Also (yes there is an also) why do you call it the World Series when only US teams play for the championship?

Not a stupid question surely?

I just find it different to say, the World Cup where all the worlds soccer teams are invited to play for the Cup!


Ok thats the end of my stupid questions for now!

Who is gonna be first to rip me to pieces?

Regards

Leigh

[Skip]

Hi Leigh,

Here are a few sites that google came up with:

www.macroweb.com/ibrules/

www.eteamz.com/baseball/rules/obr/

www.baseball-rules.com/

www.baseball-almanac.com/rulemenu.shtml

mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/official_info/official_rules/foreword.jsp

Hope these help. Batter up.

Skip

[eclipse]

Thanks Skip!

On my way there now!

By 2.00am tommorrow morning i'll be able to commentate on this stuff...

Cheers Leigh

[Trptmaster]

Leigh. Please ask away if you have any more questions! I forget some of our international users might not know what we are talking about. ;D

What sports if any do you follow over in the UK. Would Soccer (I mean football) be the most popular in England?

TM

[eclipse]

Hi TM

Biggest spectator sport is football (soccer) by a long way!

However when it comes to the sport that attracts the largest number of participants then it has to be:-

1.Fishing (believe it or not!)
2.Golf
3.Football (soccer)

The top ten were printed in a national newspaper a few months ago, but i could only remember the top 3.

I used to love going fishing, but i must admit it surprised me that it was in No.1 spot.
I never used to look upon fishing as a sport as such, but more of a relaxing hobby.

I,m still wondering why you guy's call it the "WORLD SERIES"?


Regards

Leigh

[Tootsall]

Leigh....think "cricket" but with different rules on how to actually acquire "points"! ;D

[Trptmaster]

FISHING WOW!!!! What is the cost of living like over there in the UK. Sounds like the kind of place I might want to end up.

Very interesting Top 3.

Why do you think Baseball is so popular in a country like Japan and in UK fishing is #1 and no mention of baseball.

Makes you think

TM

[eclipse]

TM

We can do a house swap if you like? Im more than happy to come live in the States!

I actually cannot wait to get over there for my first trip stateside, when come to Colorado for next years ITG.

I'd really enjoy travelling around taking in something of all the different states and what each one has to offer!

IMPORTANT NOTICE

When i said "All the different States" I meant all the States apart from that one Bruce Reynolds and his mates were stuck in, in that movie DELIVERANCE....

No offence to anyone who lives there , but being forced at gunpoint to strip naked and squeal like a piggy on all fours does not really do it for me!

I'd sooner knock my own teeth out violently with a 10lb hammer!

Regards

Leigh

PS why is everyone avoiding the WORLD SERIES question? hahahahaha

[Skip]

Hi Leigh,

I'm not a baseball fanatic, so not exactly sure why it's called the World Series. I would guess that it goes back a long time, when nearly all baseball was played here in the US. Still seems rather pretentious for the powers that be, to name it such, unless they figured that eventually the rest of the world would compete as well. Now that other nations are participating in the sport, it seems that either: 1. they ought to be included, or 2. we should rename it the US National series. Also funny that some of our (US) best players in many sports come from other countries.

Skip

[Tootsall]

"National Football League" Who's nation?
"National Hockey League" Same question.
"American League" Last time I looked "the Americas" included several countries in North, Central AND South America!

Dang! Someone got me going on a pet peeve. I HATE IT when that happens.

[Thevor]

Leigh, hope this helps.

Origin of the Name "World Series"

One baseball myth that just won't die is that the "World Series" was named for the New York World newspaper, which supposedly sponsored the earliest contests. It didn't, and it wasn't.

In fact, the postseason series between the AL and NL champs was originally known as the "Championship of the World" or "World's Championship Series." That was shortened through usage to "World's Series" and finally to "World Series."

This usage can be traced through the annual baseball guides. Spalding's Base Ball Guide for 1887 reported the results of the 1886 postseason series between Chicago, champions of the National League, and St. Louis, champions of the American Association, under the heading "The World's Championship." As the editor noted, the two leagues "both entitle their championship contests each season as those for the base ball championship of the United States," so a more grandiose name was required to describe the postseason showdown between the two "champions of the United States."

But the Spalding Guide -- which, after all, was published by one of the world's largest sporting goods companies, with a vested interest in bringing baseball to other lands -- had grander ambitions. By 1890, the Spalding Guide was explaining that "[t]he base ball championship of the United States necessarily includes that of the entire world, though the time will come when Australia will step in as a rival, and after that country will come Great Britain; but all that is for the future."

This didn't happen, but the name "World's Championship Series" stuck. Reporting on the first modern postseason series, the Red Sox-Pirates battle of 1903, the 1904 Reach Guide called it the "World's Championship Series." By 1912, Reach's headline spoke of the "World's Series," while editor Francis Richter's text still referred to the "World's Championship Series." The Reach Guide switched from "World's Series" to "World Series" in 1931, retaining the modern usage through its merger with the Spalding Guide and through its final issue in 1941. The separately-edited Spalding Guide used "World's Series" through 1916, switching to "World Series" in the 1917 edition.

The Spalding-Reach Guide was replaced as Major League Baseball's semi-official annual by the Sporting News Guide, first published in 1942. The Sporting News Guide used "World's Series" from 1942 through 1963, changing to "World Series" in the 1964 edition.

Moreover, the New York World never claimed any connection with postseason baseball. The World was a tabloid much given to flamboyant self-promotion. If it had been involved in any way with sponsoring a championship series, the fact would have been emblazoned across its sports pages for months. I reviewed every issue of the World for the months leading up to the 1903 and 1905 World's Championship Series -- there's not a word suggesting any link between the paper and the series.


(revised 05-03)


Copyright © 2001-02 Doug Pappas. All rights reserved.
Originally published in the Fall 2001 issue of Outside the Lines

[Jarrett]

Well Leigh, that's an easy one, it's called the World Series because we don't think anyone but Americans could compete with us. Just kidding, but you were asking for it.
Anyway, I think that movie Deliverance was based in Colorado, you'll probably be acosted in your hotel and made to perform sexual favors for large men. Just kidding.
-J

[noel]

Hey Jarret, I hope you're not talking about me. I've told you before that Leigh isn't my type!

So basically the World Series is just the American championships. It's nothing like the football world cup. Football is THE world sport today (I think it's only in the States and maybe Australia that it's called soccer). Does America have a national baseball team? If so which countries do you play against and in what tournaments? Have you ever been beaten. I know baseball is massive in Japan - don't they also play in Cuba and some South American countries, what about Canada? Why not have a real international competition someday?

By the way. The biggest sports event taking place in the world right now is probably the Rugby World Cup in Australia. Did you guys know that America actually has a team taking part - I saw them getting badly beaten by Scotland a couple of days ago.
Your guys were not that bad but I got the impression that they were not really used to staying on the pitch for 45 minutes of non-stop action. A couple of the American scrum looked like massive linebackers who were more used to thirty seconds of action followed buy a five minute rest during the comercial breaks with isiotonic drinks and oxygen on tap.
If you get a chance check out the English team - we are favourites to win for a change. You guys simply won't believe our kicker, Johnny Wilkinson - he would earn a fortune playing American football!
Noel.

[Jarrett]

Right on, I know you'll come around eventually I think Leigh is your type.
Yeah its just the American Championships for baseball. I'm fairly certain that our AMERICAN baseball teams can take on any team in the world however. SOCCER is definetly the world's sport, I really enjoyed being in South Korea for the last world cup. Anyway, I know we don't do well in the Rugby area, but there's not really a following in America. We don't have any Rugby players, just football players switched over. Oh yeah, and why do you call it football when you use a soccerball ?
-J

[noel]

Howcome you call it football when only one guy on the team ever kicks the ball?
Noel.