ir545@sdcc6.UUCP (ir545) (10/21/84)
Would someone please explain to me how the Detroit Tigers (or any Major League Baseball team) can claim that they are the World Champions? Unless I have been asleep for a few years I didn't see any teams from, say, Japan, Italy, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Mexico, etc. at the World Series. How then, if there is no international tournament to determine the "world" champions, can the Tigers (or a fan of theirs) claim they are the best team in the world?? The Detroit Tigers are the champions of Major League Baseball, just as the Los Angeles Raiders are the champions of the NFL, NOT THE WORLD! Martin at UCSD.
lor@ucla-cs.UUCP (10/22/84)
* Would someone please explain to me how the Detroit Tigers (or any Major * League Baseball team) can claim that they are the World Champions? * Unless I have been asleep for a few years I didn't see any teams * from, say, Japan, Italy, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Mexico, etc. at the World * Series. * How then, if there is no international tournament to determine the * "world" champions, can the Tigers (or a fan of theirs) claim they are * the best team in the world?? * The Detroit Tigers are the champions of Major League Baseball, just * as the Los Angeles Raiders are the champions of the NFL, NOT THE WORLD! * Martin at UCSD. This is certainly sour grape. If the Padres had won the World Series, they would have been called the World Champions too. Honestly, which country can beat American's baseball teams. In a seven game series, I bet you the Mexicans, Cubans, or Japanese, will never beat the Tigers. Everybody knows our baseball, basketball and football are so many levels above the others, that's why our teams are called world champions. The other countries do not even play American football. You know why soccer and hockey are not popular in America. It's because we are not the ultimate powerhouse in these sports. They are considered as foreign sports. Even through the Islanders had won 4 Stanley Cups during their dynasty, they dare not call themselves the "World Champions". They knew if they played the Soviets, they would have got whipped. So were the New York Cosmos soccer team. I really hope the other countries take a big leap on their baseball and basketball so they can challenge our supremacy. It's exciting to see our great players, like Mike Schmidt, Eddie Murray, Dale Murphy, Larry Bird, Julius Erving and company, playing for U.S.A. in some world championship tournaments with no guarantee to win it all. The recent Canada Cup (hockey) was such a tournament. All countries fielded their best teams (amateur or pro) and died to win it. However, the American public totally ignored the tournament. With no guarantee to be number one, they considered hockey as a non-American sport. There was no TV coverage, not even in the national cable channels. Only players like Wayne Gretzky, Mike Bossy, Pete Peeters, etc., who beat the best teams in the world in the Canada Cup, are proven "all-world". Larry Bird, Randy White, Moses Malone, ..., are only "all-world" on paper. Eddy Lor ...!ucbvax!ucla-cs!lor lor@ucla-cs P.S. I am not a Tiger fan. I hate them because I root for the Orioles.
rossiter@cornell.UUCP (David Rossiter) (10/24/84)
In article <1774@ucla-cs.ARPA> lor@ucla-cs.UUCP writes: >* Would someone please explain to me how the Detroit Tigers (or any Major >* League Baseball team) can claim that they are the World Champions? >* Unless I have been asleep for a few years I didn't see any teams >* from, say, Japan, Italy, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Mexico, etc. at the World >* Series. >* How then, if there is no international tournament to determine the >* "world" champions, can the Tigers (or a fan of theirs) claim they are >* the best team in the world?? >* The Detroit Tigers are the champions of Major League Baseball, just >* as the Los Angeles Raiders are the champions of the NFL, NOT THE WORLD! >* Martin at UCSD. > > >Honestly, which country can beat American's baseball teams. In a seven game >series, I bet you the Mexicans, Cubans, or Japanese, will never beat the >Tigers. Everybody knows our baseball, basketball and football are so many >levels above the others, that's why our teams are called world champions. >The other countries do not even play American football. > Now this is ethnocentrism at its worst. You sound EXACTLY like my Canadian friends a few years ago ... "well, the Soviets can beat our amateur teams but the NHL All-Stars would destroy them...". Remember what happened?? The NHL was badly embarassed and has been ever since. This was the origin of the Canada Cup. No one had heard of Tretiak then... Now, as to a 7-game series with the Tigers and say, the Tokyo Giants or the Cuban national team: On the face of it, these are no more mismatches than the 1969 Mets vs. Orioles, or for that matter 1973 Mets vs. Reds in the NLCS. (I'm a Mets fan, you can supply your own examples of big upsets). The point is: let them play, and we'll see. Have you ever seen Cuban baseball? It's a totally different style - less power but lots of "plays", emphasis on speed, excellent defense, spray hitting... Anytime you have a contrast in styles, anything can happen. This is one reason the Soviets were so effective against the NHL - they played a different kind of hockey. By the way, do you think that Barbaro Garbey is the only good baseball player in Cuba? Remember Minnie Minoso? Not to mention some other Latins...how'd you like to see an all-time Venezualan or Dominican team? (They'd wipe the Burritos, I mean Padres :-)). To briefly respond about the other sports: you're probably right about football and basketball, although there is a lot of good basketball going on in eastern Europe. So I have to agree with Martin -- let's see a REAL world series. It would be very interesting. I only hope we don't win it so that Ronald McDonald or some other self-serving politician can bask in the reflected glory :-).
lab@qubix.UUCP (Q-Bick) (10/25/84)
> Martin at UCSD. > Would someone please explain to me how the Detroit Tigers (or any Major > League Baseball team) can claim that they are the World Champions? > Unless I have been asleep for a few years I didn't see any teams > from, say, Japan, Italy, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Mexico, etc. at the World > Series. > How then, if there is no international tournament to determine the > "world" champions, can the Tigers (or a fan of theirs) claim they are > the best team in the world?? Put up or shut up! Find your best team anywhere and see if they can even win THREE out of seven from the Tigers! (BTW, the other leagues are where the washed-up or coming-back players go.) -- The Ice Floe of Larry Bickford {amd,decwrl,sun,idi,ittvax}!qubix!lab You can't settle the issue until you've settled how to settle the issue.