World Champions? Really?

"How can we call them World Champions?"

Congratulations to the St. Louis Cardinals for winning the World Series in what probably was the most exciting best of seven I've seen in years. After the game I heard the announcers and then the players referring to themselves as “World Champions.” I thought to myself, that’s arrogant! For year's I've often wondered why our professional sports teams call themselves "World Champions", once they simply win the league championship. The NFL, NBA as well as MLB all do it. Why?

I think that it's par for the course for Americans to be arrogant and this is just another reason why people from other countries have such a distaste for us. How can you call yourself a "World Champion" when you didn't compete on a world stage? The Cardinals aren't the world champions! People play baseball all over the world and the MLB is just one of many leagues. How can we call it the "World Series" when the only teams that are playing in the tournament are from America?

The only true "World Champions" are the guys that participate in the World Cup in soccer, tennis or golf and the track and field athletes that participate in the World Championships. The entire world is involved in those tournaments. So whoever wins is the true "World Champion".

When the Packers won the Super Bowl and after the Dallas Mavericks won the NBA title this year everybody was introducing them as the "World Champions" and no one blinked an eye but me.

Sometimes we need to check ourselves and our attitudes about who and what we are. Sure, we probably have some of the best athletes in the world. However, that doesn't mean that we've got the best teams in the world.

I can remember back in 2004 when the U.S. Olympic Basketball team picked up a bronze medal. We probably had the best set of athletes in the tournament but we didn't have the best team. So to say that because we've got the best athletes, therefore we should call our league champions "World Champions" is a fallacy. That means that it true but not necessarily true. It’s like saying, “People in the projects steal. Therefore, because Johnny lives in the projects he steals.” Not completely true! So pump your brakes!

If there were a world tournament played every year for the baseball, basketball and football league champions that would settle the issue. Then if we win those "World Series", if you will, you can wear the tag "World Champion", but not until then. Congrats Cards anyway, I'm Just sayin' bruh!

Holla At Ya Boy!
Jay Graves
Twitter: @jaygravesreport