Global World Series

The National Baseball Congress, founded in 1938, organized a semipro baseball tournament, the NBC World Series (related to the World Series of Major League Baseball in name only), that was held annually in Wichita, Kansas. With district, state, regional and a national tournament in place, NBC president Ray Dumont set out to establish a non-professional global tournament. He started in 1939, with a seven-game series between the NBC World Series champion representing the United States, and the Puerto Rico national champion from Guayama.{{cite news |last=Martin |first=Whitney |title=Duncan Champions Gape Gasp At Big City Then Sail Away |newspaper=The Daily Oklahoman |date=September 1, 1939 |page=31}} That Puerto Rico team notably included Pedro "Perucho" Cepeda and Pancho Coimbre.{{cite web |title=Enid, Oklahoma's Baseball Links: Late Nineteenth Century to the 21st Century, Part II |url=https://beisbol101.com/enid-oklahomas-baseball-links-late-nineteenth-century-to-the-21st-century-part-ii/ |website=Beisbol 101 |date=19 May 2024 |access-date=27 July 2024 |last=Van Hyning |first=Tom}} Another series in 1940 included Red Barkley on the U.S. team, and Luis Olmo on Puerto Rico. In 1948, a Can-Am Series with Canada was billed as the Sandlot Baseball World Series.{{cite web |title=North American Final |url=https://attheplate.com/wcbl/1948_90i.html |website=Western Canada Baseball |access-date=27 July 2024}} 1950 and 1952 matched the NBC World Series champion against Japan in the Inter-Hemisphere Series.

Dumont began discussing an international tournament that would feature multiple semipro teams from across the globe in 1948, supported by J. G. Taylor Spink, publisher of The Sporting News, and Alejandro Aguilar Reyes, founder and then-commissioner of the Mexican League.Buege, 2012 Despite the Mexican League's recent conflict with Major League Baseball, Dumont also enlisted the support of former MLB Commissioner Happy Chandler, in his role as head of the International Baseball Congress.{{cite book |title=USIS Features |date=1952 |publisher=US Department of State |page=159 |chapter=Baseball Interest Growing in Free World |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4e325LkBU_8C&dq=%22international%20baseball%20congress%22%20ibc%20global%20world%20series&pg=PP377}}{{efn|Not to be confused with the International Baseball Federation, or FIBA}} Chandler in particular sought to expand the existing two-nation series (most recently played between the United States and Japan) to a series involving four nations, or perhaps eight, in 1954; despite the success of the two series in Japan, Chandler felt that, in order to increase the number and scope of the teams in the tournament, an American city would have to host.

The IBC was supported in their efforts by the U.S. Department of State, which saw it as a means of promoting American ideals around the world; President Dwight D. Eisenhower personally endorsed the tournament, writing that "friendships derived from sports competition are enduring."{{cite news |last1=Raubacher |first1=George |title=Hash |url=https://newspaperarchive.com/us/wisconsin/janesville/janesville-daily-gazette/1955/06-22/page-18 |agency=Janesville Daily Gazette |date=June 22, 1955}}

Chandler and Dumont initially sought to host the first Global World Series in 1954, but plans fell through and it was instead held in 1955. Brooklyn Dodgers president Walter O'Malley volunteered the use of Ebbets Field for a world tournament, but Chandler instead selected Milwaukee County Stadium, the new home of the Milwaukee Braves. The 1955 Global World Series included representatives of Hawaii, Colombia, Spain, Puerto Rico, Japan, Canada, the United States, and Mexico.{{cite news |title=MILWAUKEE'S WORLD SERIES |url=https://vault.si.com/vault/1955/10/10/events-discoveries |access-date=27 July 2024 |agency=Sports Illustrated |date=10 October 1955}} Some countries were represented by their professional or semi-pro club champions, while other national teams were made up of a collection of all-stars. The Spanish national team classified by virtue of winning the 1955 European Baseball Championship.{{cite book |author1=Julio Pernas López |title=Strike Two: El Béisbol en la españa de la posguerra 1939-1960 y otras curiosidades del deporte español |date=2011 |publisher=World Baseball Softball Confederation |pages=224–26 |url=https://static.wbsc.org/uploads/federations/39/cms/documents/d3845820-6b5e-499f-256f-b5f063a2991e.pdf |access-date=2 August 2024 |language=es}} Daryl Spencer was on the American team, while Luis Olmo was with Puerto Rico. The participation of the European champions was a coup for Chandler and the IBC, as FIBA had not been able to involve those European countries in the Amateur World Series.{{cite book |author1=Riccardo Schiroli |title=The Game We Love |date=2019 |publisher=World Baseball Softball Confederation |url=https://static.wbsc.org/assets/files/2019_WBSC_The_Game_We_Love_SMALL.pdf |pages=68}}

The 1956 U.S. selection, a semi-pro team from Fort Wayne, included John Kennedy, a Negro Leaguer who would soon become the first African American to play for the Philadelphia Phillies, and Don Pavletich, a future catcher for the Cincinnati Reds. Canada was represented by the North Battleford Beavers, Japan by the Nippon Oil club from Yokohama, and Hawaii by the Honolulu Red Sox. As in 1955, the national teams from Colombia, Mexico, and Puerto Rico were all-star squads, primarily comprising winter league players, while the 1956 European champion was the Netherlands, including former Giants prospect Han Urbanus.{{cite book|author=Josh Chetwynd |title=Baseball in Europe: A Country by Country History |date=2008 |pages=22–23 |isbn=9780786437245}}

In 1957, the series was moved to Briggs Stadium in Detroit. The United States was represented by an amateur club from Sinton, Texas, which included former big leaguers Paul Schramka, Wilmer Fields, and Clint Hartung. The Japanese selection defeated the Edmonton Eskimos of Canada in the final game by a score of 4–2 to win the title.{{cite web |title=JAPAN TAKES GLOBAL WORLD SERIES. |url=https://newsreels.net/v/8np9g9 |website=Newsreels.net |publisher=Hearst Metronome |access-date=27 July 2024 |date=27 September 1955}}{{cite web |title=Global World Series |url=https://www.attheplate.com/wcbl/1957_1h.html |website=Western Canada Baseball}} However, the tournament was a financial loss, and efforts to revive it in 1959 were unsuccessful.

In 1955, a non-professional Global Series was organized. Teams representing Canada, Columbia, Hawaii (a U.S. Territory until 1959), Holland, Japan, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Spain played in the eight team tournament. The NBC World Series champion represented the United States.{{Cite news |title=Milwaukee Host to Global Series |newspaper=The Capital Times |date=September 7, 1955 |page=19}}{{Cite news |title=Global Series Opens Friday |newspaper=The Wichita Eagle |date=September 2, 1956 |page=23}} The Global Series only lasted three seasons.

• Baseball World Cup
• World Baseball Classic
• Kodak World Baseball Classic

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• {{cite web |last1=Buege |first1=Bob |title=Global World Series: 1955-57 |url=https://sabr.org/journal/article/global-world-series-1955-57/ |website=SABR |publisher=Society for American Baseball Research |date=Spring 2012}}

{{International baseball}}

{{Baseball in the United States}}

Category:World championships in baseball

Category:Recurring sporting events established in 1939

Category:Recurring sporting events disestablished in 1957

Category:Amateur baseball in the United States

Category:Baseball in Milwaukee

Category:Baseball in Detroit