nowayback wrote:sorry for the noob question but why call it 'World Series' when only US (and Canada?) compete?
A good question. When baseball was invented, the only people playing it were in the US and CA, so the best in the world were those playing it there, so "world series" is apt. These days, American and Canadian players aren't necessarily the best, but there are a lot of great players from around the world that come to play in the league, so the best of the best (for the most part) are still playing there.
Maybe the name should change, but it's become more of a historic thing. Of course, you can't forget about Americans blindly thinking they're the best at everything too (but definitely not all Americans).
Same goes for basketball. The winners of the NBA finals are the "world champions".