I thought this article was humorous. Hope you enjoy it. I wonder if they take bets on all of these? 
Are you Serious?
The Last Word by T.S. Last
What in the world?
It used to be there was only one World Series. Now, there's a whole universe of them.
I was flipping channels the other night, as I often do, and saw that the World Series of Poker and the World Series of Darts were airing simultaneously on separate ESPN stations.
Upon further exploration, I discovered that over on VH1 there's a show called "The World Series of Pop Culture."
What is going on here? Has the earth spun off its axis?
Google "World Series" and you come up with a series of World Series events. There seems to be a World Series for just about everything under the sun, including Adventure Racing and Wakeboarding. You would have thought Major League Baseball, which has played its World Series since 1903, would have copyrighted the phrase somewhere along the line.
Of course, baseball is one of the biggest abusers, and I'm not just talking steroids.
Within the game of baseball you also have the NCAA College World Series, the NAIA World Series and the NJCAA World Series. And there's the Little League World Series, a Big League World Series and a National Club Baseball Association World Series, to name just a few.
There's even a World Series of Nintendo RBI Baseball, which is not a part of the World Series of Video Games.
All kinds of games have gone global. In addition to the World Series of Poker, the World Series' of Blackjack, Hearts, Spades and Pinochle have all followed suit.
Soccer already has the World Cup; it also has the World Series of Soccer.
Some of these so-called World Series' can't be taken seriously.
Believe it or not, there's a World Series of Rock, Paper, Scissors and a World Series of Competitive Eating. If you find that hard to swallow, wash it down with the World Series of Beer Pong, a game that can be played with domestic or imported products.
More sporty, there's a classification of auto racing called World Series Sprint Cars and such a thing as Champ Car World Series. For aviators, there's the Red Bull Air Race World Series.
Two World Series would collide if the National Rifle Association's national championships, billed as "the World Series of Shooting Sports," were to be held at the same time and place as the World Series of Birding, described on the New Jersey Audubon Society's Web site as, "birding's premier event."
Houston's Reliant Park World Series of Dog Shows showcases the world's most obedient dogs, as well as world-class agility racers and Frisbee catchers.
World Series don't just revolve around sport. As idiotic as it may sound, the idiom has invaded the arts.
Perhaps not so surprisingly, the Independent Music World Series pirated the term. So has the University of Washington, which currently is staging the UW World Series at Meany Hall of the Performing Arts.
To me, there's only one World Series. For performing arts, I'll take the artistry of Don Larson's perfect game, the gracefulness of Joe DiMaggio, the prose of Vin Scully calling Kirk Gibson's home run.
Cards? I'll take Bob Gibson over Chris Moneymaker any day. And the thought of competitive eater Kobayashi being considered some kind of World Series hero makes me want to vomit.
Seriously, the last thing this world needs right now is another World Series. |
The News Bulletin
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