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From: rossiter@cornell.UUCP (David Rossiter)
Newsgroups: net.sport.baseball
Subject: Re: World Champs??
Message-ID: <1837@cornell.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 24-Oct-84 14:32:11 EDT
Article-I.D.: cornell.1837
Posted: Wed Oct 24 14:32:11 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 25-Oct-84 04:14:44 EDT
References: <2400001@hpmtlb.UUCP> <1787@sdcc6.UUCP> <1774@ucla-cs.ARPA>
Reply-To: rossiter@gvax.UUCP (David Rossiter)
Distribution: net
Organization: Cornell Univ. CS Dept.
Lines: 52

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 :-).