Why is baseball's championship called the World Series?

The honest answer is that nobody is certain, and the most popular explanation is almost certainly false.

The widely repeated story is that the series was named after the New York World newspaper, which supposedly sponsored it. There is no evidence for this. Researchers have found no record of the paper sponsoring the event, and the name predates any such association. It appears to be a modern invention that spread because it sounds satisfying.

The likelier explanation is simply the grandiosity of nineteenth-century American sports promotion. Championship events were routinely billed as "world's championships" regardless of who could actually enter, and the phrase carried no claim about international participation. The earliest name was the World's Championship Series, later shortened to World's Series and then World Series.

The modern event dates from 1903, when the champions of the National League and the newly established American League agreed to meet.

The name has stuck despite the obvious objection that participation is limited to clubs in the United States and, since 1969, one in Canada. It is a historical label rather than a description.

The same pattern appears elsewhere in American sport, and it is not unique to the United States — several sports use "world" loosely.

Baseball does have genuinely international competitions. The World Baseball Classic, established in 2006, features national teams, and baseball has appeared intermittently at the Olympics.

Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan, the Korea Baseball Organization and leagues across Latin America operate at a high standard, and the winner of the World Series does not play them.