How a team that wins the NATIONAL basketball association can claim the title of WORLD champion. Or the winner of the NATIONAL football league, or the NATIONAL hockey league. Can anyone explain that to a simple peasant like me ?

And what about the MLS ? If, let's say the Chicago Fire, wins the championship, are they considered WORLD champs ?

The USA is The World johnny. You should know that by now...

Surely that can't be the reason ?

I've sometimes wondered that myself. Maybe because it would sound funny is they said the U.S. champions? Maybe because they have no one else to play in the world or they think so? I dunno. Also, why do they called it the "World Series" in baseball, if it's only played in America?

Yeah, but "national champs" doesn't sound that odd, does it ? After all, that's all it is, a national championship. Of course in hockey, baseball, and basketball are Canadian teams, but it's still only the North American continent.

Well, the World Series was so named because it originally decide which of the two US champs was the winner... and "Real championship series" didn't feel like it would sell a lot of ... baseball [img]smile.gif[/img]

Check here for more details.

There is an old myth that the New York World was responsible for its naming, but that's not quite true.

Hmmm. Ever noticed that there's only two letters different between "New York" and "New Yorick"?

Draw your own conclusions....

Perhaps he's aiming for Champion of the World? He's a bit of a champion, my friend.

Well, we have the Mr. Universe contest as well and only humans participate in that one, no Martians, Uranians or Grelzonkians.

[ 12-01-2003, 10:40 AM: Message edited by: Stratos ]

<font color=pink>But in the important sport, football, there are no world champions, only the Super Bowl winners :D </font>

During the time period where these names were born, America was an isolationist country. My guess would be that the rest of the world didn’t matter to America at that time, and as a result, Americans believed they were the world.

So a team winning the “national” championship becomes a “world” champion in the eyes of the isolationist.