Enough World Series, Can We Agree?

Enough World Series events, already! Okay?

Stan Silliman is on his soapbox again. I swore to retire it as soon as I used the last bar of soap but this proliferation of World Series events forced me to drag it out from under the bed.

Can we agree?

Or do you like the poker and the diving and the foosball and the tiddlywinks and the rodeo and the comedy and the whatever coat tailing baseball for whatever event deemed worthy of it's own special "World Series"?

It's like our national past time never bothered to trade mark their yearly fall event.

Didn't Baseball ever hear of ... uh... one of those thingees?

You know what I mean? Those thingees? With their pinstripe suits, and their briefcases... and their vocabularies... and their law degrees?

Lawyers, for crying out loud!

Couldn't Baseball afford one of those?

Is not like their average employee is making $ 3.4 million dollars a year. Oh wait, it is. Still you'd think they could afford one or two of those attorney thingees

Couldn't they? Couldn't they protect the name of their eagerly awaited fall event?

To answer those questions and explore all possible other series we're using something called "slide shows."  I hope the word "slide show" isn't trademarked.

A Little Bit of World Series History

Jim McIsaac/Getty Images

SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, PA - AUGUST 28: The Southeast team from Columbus, Georgia pose with their banner after defeating the Asian team from Kawaguchi City, Japan during the Championship game of the Little League World Series on August 28, 2006 at Lamade Sta

You know in baseball, there's also a College World Series and a Little League World Series.

We can understand those, they're baseball. Papa Ball isn't going to deny their feeder organizations an opportunity to tag the baseballness of the World Series name.

Besides, the Little League World Series is a true "world" series. They include teams from around the world.

The most MLB can hope for is once in while a team from Canada might make it. Yeah, right.

The first World Series was in 1903 between the Boston Americans of the AL and the Pittsburgh Pirates of the NL. It was disorganized and discontinued in 1904.because of a dispute over money. 

It was picked up again in 1905 and continued through the years despite the Black Sox scandal of 1919.

But was the term "World Series" trademarked?

No, we can't find any early records. Perhaps baseball thought no one else would dare steal the name because, you know, baseball players have bats, great weapons, and they know how to use them. 

Major League Baseball finally did decide to trademark the name "World Series" in 1981. Their application number is 73230895. Their filing date was September 11, 1979.  The registration was approved on November 17, 1981.

It's possible since baseball waited so long they were only able to trademark the words for their industry. It may be other sports and other industries had already used various variations of "World Series" by 1981. We'll check into this. We do know the NFL trademarked "Superbowl" in 1969, a full ten years ahead of MLB. . 

World Series of Team Roping

This organization started in 2006, hails from Albuquerque and promotes roping events around the country with a finals in Las Vegas.

Their website is www.wstroping.com and you can find them on facebook.

Every time I tried googling "World Series" they came up. Give it up to their site placement guys because they know how to rope you in.

I would think roping could be more creative than to pick World Series. After all, rodeo is such a modern sport, what with their updated animals and all (sarcasm). 

Check their video from Tad Williams, Jr. Have fun with the video. Note the arena in Las Vegas is brimming with fans. Count the fans. Count the hats. There might be more hats than fans.  Count the teeth. Definitely more hats than teeth.

Try to figure out what the calf is thinking when he's being chased by a team of ropers. And not just any team, but guys who made it to the World Series final event.  Is he proud? Or is he thinking "Where are all the roping fans? I'm running my little ass off here and all I see is red seats... and a few hats. I can see more hats than teeth."

World Series of Poker

Here's another World Series, the World Series of Poker.

Yeah, that makes sense. Because when you think baseball, you associate it with poker.

Why? It's simple: five cards in a hand... and five fingers in a hand holding a bat. The fifth inning is the middle inning in a nine inning game and a fifth is what you drink when playing poker... or baseball if you're Babe Ruth, who also liked playing poker on the train.

Also, Abner Doubleday created baseball and Abner Doubledown invented poker. So you see?

The World Series of Poker started in Las Vegas in 1970 by Benny Binion at the Horseshoe Casino. The event is currently owned by Caesar's. 

Tons of people play in the WSOP. Seriously, tons of people. In 2006, there were 877 tons of poker players holding their cards like Texans, or Omahans, or pretending to be studs.

If Binion trademarked the name in 1970 he beat MLB by eleven years. Plus, he did it in Las Vegas which, so far, seems to be the home of things, other than baseball, known as World Series.

Here's a Chris Moneymaker vs. Sam Farha WSOP video. Yeah, the guy's name is Chris Moneymaker.

I know!

World Series of Boxing

Boxing has a world series, too. Or they might and the first finals is set for China on May 6th.

This is a team boxing event with anywhere from 10 to 20 boxers on a team.  It was organized by AIBA and IMG management. Their website is www.worldseriesofboxing.com

Here's the teams and the towns:

Los Angeles Matadors

Memphis Force

Mexico City Guerreros

Miami Gallos

Astana Arians

Baku Fires

Beijing Dragons

Pohang Poseidons

Istanbulls

Milano Thunder

Kremlin Bears

Paris United

The Istanbulls. Did you get that one?

The Astana Arians is a team from Kazakhstan. I've looked over their roster and it seems to be lacking of... uh... arians. Check it out.

This truly is a world wide event. Perhaps, that's why they too chose to use the words "World Series."

World Series of Diving

Here's a video from the Red Bull World Series of Diving. If you don't watch any other videos, watch this one. There are underwater cameras and the scenery is breathtaking. 

There's also a FINA Diving World Series which is dominated by the Chinese.

How about that? Here's a sport with more than one World Series.

Some didn't start until 2007.

Can you say ridiculous?

Are you starting to feel my frustration?

World Series of Beer Pong

Are you tired of all these World Series popping up and not being in or near Las Vegas?

Yeah, me too.

So here's another world series-- the World Series of Beer Pong-- and it started in 2006 where it should be started, in Mesquite, Nevada, a beer cans throw from Vegas. 

The first prize in the first year was $ 10,000 for the tournament held at the Oasis Hotel and Casino. Later the prize was increased to $ 50,000 and moved into the Las Vegas city limits at the South Point Casino. It later moved to the Flamingo where close to 300 teams participate. 

Beer Pong team names are always creative and the winners didn't disappoint. The first winning team was "Team France" because we know how much they love beer in France.

The next winners were "We Own Your Face" followed by "Chauffeuring the Fat Kid", followed by "Smashing Time" twice, The last event was announced by Bruce "Let's Get Ready to Pretend I'm My Brother" Buffer.

If you'd like to see another Las Vegas based "World Series" event video, here goes.

World Series of Backgammon

Oh, geez. I should've known Backgammon would get in on the World Series gig.

Frontgammon would never be so brazen. Frontgammon has ethics.

Seriously, there is a backgammon league, a bunch of internationally ranked players and, of course, a world series.

They have a website, www.worldseriesofbackgammon.com and an abbreviation WSOB, and an update on ranked players.

The top ranked American at number three in the world is Peter Papa. Americans, John Karapanagiotis and Theo Deligiorgis, are currently ranked 8th and 9th. Their names are a little tough to pronounce as is typical with backgammon players.  The names are either toughies or they're odd, such as the number seven player, Jordan Jordan from Martinique. 

One thing about the WSOB, exotic places, as you'll see in this video from Cannes.

World Series of Golf

Here's another event from, guess where, Las Vegas- the World Series of Golf.

Just when you thought Las Vegas couldn't come up with any more World Series, they did. This time Terry Leiweke created a golf/poker event with a May finals in Las Vegas.

In this event you play golf and you play poker, including a $10,000 buy in if you make it to the finals.

What will they combine next and call it a world series? Checkers and tooth extracting? Dentists descend on Las Vegas carrying their checkerboards and pliers?

Here's another video.  At least we know there can't be any more world series from Vegas.

World Series of Comedy

Just when you think again there can be no one more world series in Las Vegas, that Las Vegas might be laden with world series, that the ad printers at the Las Vegas Sun might be worn out, that they may running around their offices wondering whether there's a fresh idea in Vegas, here comes the World Series of Comedy.

My friend, Joe Lowers is doing this event. There's a lot of fun, a lot of comics, a lot of laughs and huge number of times we use the word, World Series.

There are also the World Series of Blackjack, World Series of Monopoly, World Series of Bowling, World Series of BBQ, all in Las Vegas.

I'm done.