1949 Lou Figaro's WRA 500-Lap Race Wreck at Oakland Stadium Speedway

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#16

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Bottom post of the previous page:

Jesper Hvid wrote: 2 years ago It's very amusing, actually. Seems it's an American affliction... Worst I've ever heard was a friendly football international on astroturf in Phoenix between the USA and Denmark's League XI in 1993, which was advertised as a match in the Soccer World Series...
That I understand, as it was an international friendly :mrgreen: If it was one of a series of events involving international friendlies, well, then it fits! If a one off, not so much :haha:

American promoters are very much in that vein. Seemingly every short track was "the fastest (length) oval in the (region, country)" and from early days, seemingly every fairground horse track auto race was "a new world record!"

Michael Ferner could add so many on those :smiley: After World War I put an end to most open road racing, auto racing in the U.S. became a fairground/carnival attraction, and was handled as such.
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#17

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Just some info. Olympic Commitee est. 1894. FIFA est. 1904. Only these two bodies can be considered organizers of anything to do with world soccer competitions. They literally are the officialdom. You can have all the unofficial stuff you like going on, but they call the shots on who's official world soccer champions. They can award them, and take them away again. The motor racing pendant is FIA, est. 1904. "Unofficial world champion" is an oxymoronic footnote. Made up. US organizers have been in no position to determine world championships of any kind, since these dates. But then there's the boxing organizations, the WB-somethings. I think this is where the term "undisputed world champion", comes from. It's when one guy has all four belts. I.e. noone can dispute the champion, as he has won all titles. But all this is off topic.
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Post by Michael Ferner »

Actually, the "worst offenders" in motor racing are Australian short track promoters. Just recently, I researched Midget ("Speedcar") racing in Oz, and they not only routinely staged multiple State championships at different tracks, but sometimes also Australian and even World Championships. Not only that those "world championships" were contested by a couple dozen local cars, sometimes with one or two US drivers who happened to be touring the antipodes during the Northern hemisphere winter and one or the other "ex-pat" Englishman and even one German (!), there were usually several "world championships" in a single year: one at Sydney, one at Brisbane, one at Melbourne... you get the drift. And there are even those (e.g. a UK Midget forum) who take those "world champions" seriously!
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#19

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Michael Ferner wrote: 2 years ago "world championships" were contested by a couple dozen local cars
I would love to be the yahoo that won an all-local-driver "world championship race"! It really sounds like something you could brag about in a bar.
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Post by Michael Ferner »

I once won a World Championship (or, more precisely a World's Record) in table football, it doesn't give you much. I knew from the start that it was a ridiculous affair, and me and my playing partner were the only ones in the field who had experience in tournament playing, never having won much. But this one, we won by the proverbial country mile. They handed us a cup, took some pictures and we were all "yeah, right - let's go!" It was a joke, and we only ever spoke about it as that.
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#21

Post by Microsprinter18 »

Michael Ferner wrote: 2 years ago I once won a World Championship (or, more precisely a World's Record) in table football, it doesn't give you much. I knew from the start that it was a ridiculous affair, and me and my playing partner were the only ones in the field who had experience in tournament playing, never having won much. But this one, we won by the proverbial country mile. They handed us a cup, took some pictures and we were all "yeah, right - let's go!" It was a joke, and we only ever spoke about it as that.
That is an awesome story nonetheless, I love it!!
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#22

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Jesper Hvid wrote: 2 years ago Just some info. Olympic Commitee est. 1894. FIFA est. 1904. Only these two bodies can be considered organizers of anything to do with world soccer competitions. They literally are the officialdom. You can have all the unofficial stuff you like going on, but they call the shots on who's official world soccer champions. They can award them, and take them away again. The motor racing pendant is FIA, est. 1904. "Unofficial world champion" is an oxymoronic footnote. Made up. US organizers have been in no position to determine world championships of any kind, since these dates. But then there's the boxing organizations, the WB-somethings. I think this is where the term "undisputed world champion", comes from. It's when one guy has all four belts. I.e. noone can dispute the champion, as he has won all titles. But all this is off topic.
It's an English language thing. The Denmark v. U.S. football match wasn't being hailed or portrayed as a "World Championship", but, instead exactly as you listed it "World Series." (meaning a series of matches against "World" competition). If it was a series of matches of the U.S. v. other countries, in a series of matches involving international friendlies (which I seem to recall it was), then that's perfectly acceptable. The U.S. national squad playing various countries in various locations around the U.S., a tour, really. I seem to recall a similar series being called "U.S. vs. The World!" or some such :wink: Obviously FIFA didn't object to the terminology :haha:
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#23

Post by Everso Biggyballies »

JThur01 wrote: 2 years ago
Jesper Hvid wrote: 2 years ago Just some info. Olympic Commitee est. 1894. FIFA est. 1904. Only these two bodies can be considered organizers of anything to do with world soccer competitions. They literally are the officialdom. You can have all the unofficial stuff you like going on, but they call the shots on who's official world soccer champions. They can award them, and take them away again. The motor racing pendant is FIA, est. 1904. "Unofficial world champion" is an oxymoronic footnote. Made up. US organizers have been in no position to determine world championships of any kind, since these dates. But then there's the boxing organizations, the WB-somethings. I think this is where the term "undisputed world champion", comes from. It's when one guy has all four belts. I.e. noone can dispute the champion, as he has won all titles. But all this is off topic.
It's an English language thing. The Denmark v. U.S. football match wasn't being hailed or portrayed as a "World Championship", but, instead exactly as you listed it "World Series." (meaning a series of matches against "World" competition). If it was a series of matches of the U.S. v. other countries, in a series of matches involving international friendlies (which I seem to recall it was), then that's perfectly acceptable. The U.S. national squad playing various countries in various locations around the U.S., a tour, really. I seem to recall a similar series being called "U.S. vs. The World!" or some such :wink: Obviously FIFA didn't object to the terminology :haha:
Golf has the Presidents Cup which is (a team of players from the) US v (a team of players from) the rest of the World.... Not AFAIK classified as a World Championship.

it also has the much more historic and long standing Ryder Cup which is USA v Europe. https://www.rydercup.com/history.

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#24

Post by Jesper Hvid »

JThur01 wrote: 2 years ago
Jesper Hvid wrote: 2 years ago Just some info. Olympic Commitee est. 1894. FIFA est. 1904. Only these two bodies can be considered organizers of anything to do with world soccer competitions. They literally are the officialdom. You can have all the unofficial stuff you like going on, but they call the shots on who's official world soccer champions. They can award them, and take them away again. The motor racing pendant is FIA, est. 1904. "Unofficial world champion" is an oxymoronic footnote. Made up. US organizers have been in no position to determine world championships of any kind, since these dates. But then there's the boxing organizations, the WB-somethings. I think this is where the term "undisputed world champion", comes from. It's when one guy has all four belts. I.e. noone can dispute the champion, as he has won all titles. But all this is off topic.
It's an English language thing. The Denmark v. U.S. football match wasn't being hailed or portrayed as a "World Championship", but, instead exactly as you listed it "World Series." (meaning a series of matches against "World" competition). If it was a series of matches of the U.S. v. other countries, in a series of matches involving international friendlies (which I seem to recall it was), then that's perfectly acceptable. The U.S. national squad playing various countries in various locations around the U.S., a tour, really. I seem to recall a similar series being called "U.S. vs. The World!" or some such :wink: Obviously FIFA didn't object to the terminology :haha:
Cultural relativism doesn't interest me.
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#25

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Jesper Hvid wrote: 2 years ago Cultural relativism doesn't interest me.
Offered solely as an explanation, much like the explanation of "qualifying" for U.S. short track racing.
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#26

Post by Jesper Hvid »

Kudos for a good try, but you didn't make it in either case.
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