If you're a baseball fan, you already know we’re in the midst of the World Series. But despite that name, New York and Los Angeles aren't the only places involved in championship baseball these days.
You may know all about the Yankees and the Dodgers, but did you know that the Kia Tigers came from behind to beat the Samsung Lions on Monday?
That means Kia won the Korea Series — taking the best of seven games in the final round.
And it's not Asia's only pro baseball championship. The Taiwan Series just wrapped up, with the CTBC Brothers beating out the Uni-President 7-11 Lions.
Another way to look at that is that a team owned by a bank emerged victorious over one owned by a food conglomerate.
The Japan Series is still underway. The Softbank Hawks are leading the DeNA Baystars — that's a technology holding company ahead of a mobile phone and e-commerce firm.
Corporations have always been close to baseball in East Asia — down to the team names.
Before he was a Dodger, Shohei Ohtani played for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters, named in part for a meat packing company, which is actually based in Osaka and nowhere near Hokkaido.
All three of the East Asian leagues have sent players on to the U.S. Major Leagues, which is by far the biggest and best-funded baseball grouping on the globe — even though professional baseball now extends far beyond the American-made “World Series.”
