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April 4 – Start of 2010 Baseball Season
- Thread starter Lyndhurst 14
- Start date
Peter Grummit
Well-known member
Not sure they will go all the way and win the Fall Classic but they have a tough team - the best Rangers team in the 25 years I have been following them. The Yankees have been their nemesis in previous playoffs. I was amazed that we got Cliff from under the noses of the Yanks and there is no doubt they will be afraid of him after the record he had against them in the Series for the Phillies last year. The Rangers were willing to include a very good prospect - Justin Smoak - that persuaded the Mariners to trade.
PG
Peter Grummit
Well-known member
Game 2 underway in the AL.
Texas 0 Rays 0 after 1 inning.
PG
Texas 0 Rays 0 after 1 inning.
PG
patchamalbion
Well-known member
GO RAYS
Peter Grummit
Well-known member
Go to Arlington 0 and 2.
6-0 Texas bottom of the 8th, Michael Young 3-run homer!
PG
6-0 Texas bottom of the 8th, Michael Young 3-run homer!
PG
Lyndhurst 14
Well-known member
- Jan 16, 2008
- 5,203
- Thread starter
- #46
Good to see that Cliff Lee, one of the star players for the Texas Rangers in the play offs, has turned down a more lucrative deal from the Yankees and accepted a 5 year $120 million contract with the Phillies. This is some $30 million less than the Evil Empire was offering and has left the Yankees stunned and hurt. Normally the Yankees outbid everybody else and get their man but not this time. Having given a massive 2 fingers to the Yankees Lee will get a hero’s welcome at Citizens Bank Park.
fataddick
Well-known member
Phillies' pitching roster is indeed very strong, but then the mighty Red Sox have a super strong batting line-up now (with the acquisition of Adrian Gonzales and Carl Crawford, and hopefully less of the injuries that made us also-rans this year). A Phillies v Sox world series would be an interesting one (the best pitchers v the best bats) fingers crossed.
BensGrandad
New member
Is it only Americans who can get excited about playing rounders like we used to at school as kids. Why is it called the World series when nobody else in the world plays it? As you can see I am not a fan of it but good luck to those who are.
He's not exactly going to be in the poor house though, is he?
willyfantastic
New member
- Mar 1, 2009
- 2,368
Because it was sponsored by the World Newspaper (or magazine) if I remember correctly, so its in relation to a sponsorship, and not the type of competition
Myth I'm afraid. It really does come down to American arrogance.
Mtoto
Well-known member
- Sep 28, 2003
- 1,853
22 countries sent teams to the last baseball world cup. It's massively popular in central America and Asia, including Japan, which has a professional league. Just because it's not on your personal radar, doesn't mean it doesn't happen.
Like it or not, the team that wins the World Series each year - which will usually include plenty of players from outside the US - can rightly claim to be the best in the world, because they are the champions of the world's biggest League. Depending on your presonal prejudice, it can be seen as typical American arrogance, or typical American plain-speaking.
How many countries play rugby union seriously? Didn't stop everyone acclaiming England as "World Champions" a few years ago though, did it?
There is a baseball world cup, but this has been more or less superceded by the new "baseball classic", which features 16 teams and importantly, features players from MLB. It's been played twice, Japan and S Korea are the only two winners so far. The US put out a strong team for both tournaments and ended up beaten in the semis.
I don't really understand what point you are trying to make with the rest of your post. England were world champions at rugby because they won the tournament which featured sides from all test playing nations and other qualifiers. I don't see what relevance that has to baseball's world series, played amongst American (and one Canadian) baseball clubs.
fataddick
Well-known member
Roughly half the world plays baseball, albeit mostly at an amateur level (although most Asian and North & South American countries have pro-leagues). There are 72 countries in the IBAF baseball rankings, so whilst it's clearly not a patch on football (207 countries in the FIFA rankings) it pisses all over crap sports like cricket. The UK are currently ranked 21st in the world, and Cuba are top (the US second), so I personally doff my caff to the Yanks for being so obssessed with a sport that the country they hate more than any other in the world is better at than them!
As for why it's called the World Series, think that's just convenience more than arrogance. The match is a play-off between the winners of the two pro leagues, the American League and the National League. Consequently, they couldn't call it the American Championship/Series or the National Championship/Series, so what else do they call it. Plus there is one Canadian team eligible. And 40% of the players in MLB aren't American (a good twenty or so countries represented). And there are plenty of World Championships that take place in the UK (eg gurning, tiddlywinks) that rarely attract competitors from outside the village where they take place, let alone outside the UK, so we can hardly talk!
FYI From around 1998-2006 the UK national baseball side played their home games in Brighton, at Pavilion Field, located by Brighton rugby club at Waterhall and regarded as the best baseball diamond in the country. The national club championships (UK equivalewnt of the 'World Series') also took place there annually and Brighton Buccaneers won it roughly one year in every two. Unfortunately the club folded, the baseball diamond stopped being adequately maintained, and now UK home games and end of season championships take place in... CROYDON. Ptch.