From the (e-)mail bag, Patrick O'Mara from Washington, D.C., sent the following message: "I'm writing as a new fan to the game; my wife got me into (baseball) this past season, when the Red Sox finally overcame the Yankees. My question is why do they call it the "World" Series?
"Obviously, baseball is popular in Japan and other places, so has anyone ever tried to gather the best players from Japan to face the best of the USA or something like that? It seems to me then it would really be the World Series."
The term "World Series" originated, Patrick, in various baseball guides published 118 years ago. According to the Fall 2001 issue of Outside the Lines, the newsletter of the Society for American Baseball Research Business of Baseball Committee: