# Why do we call it "The World Series" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 19, 2000, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-call-it-the-world-series/41795 "2000-11-19T01:37:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2001, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-call-it-the-world-series/41795/21 "2001-11-07T18:41:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by samclem \* > \*\ ***Tony** said > > > [@](#): > > > > Baseball was being played in countries like Japan and Cuba as early as the 1880’s. > > Are you making a statement here, or did you forget to add a question mark? > > What is your evidence that baseball was played in Japan and Cuba in the 1880’s? \*\* The first Cuban to play in the majors was Esteban (Steve) Bellan, who played in the National Association from 1871-1873. Baseball had been introduced to Japan by American missionaries in 1873. [http://www2.gol.com/users/jallen/jimball.html](http://www2.gol.com/users/jallen/jimball.html) That said, the state of Cuban and Japanese baseball was well below that of America’s in the 19th Century. Cuba has probably been close to American ball for most of the 20th Century and there would have been more Cuban stars in the majors if it weren’t for segregation. Japan is getting close to the U.S. in quality, but if you matched up the Yakult Swallows (the 2001 Japan Series champ) against the Arizona Diamondbacks, it would not be pretty. The Swallows would look even more feeble against Messrs. Schilling and Johnson than the Yankees did. They would probably hit Byung-Hyun Kim pretty well however since submarine style pitching is not uncommon in Japan. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-we-call-it-the-world-series/41795.md?page=1)