One of the things foreign observers and visitors tend to roll their eyes over and shake their heads at is the labeling of Major League Baseball's championship showdown as the "World Series."

How, they ask, can the fall classic truly be a "World Series" when only American (and very occasionally a Canadian-based) teams play? To them, this has been the height of national sports arrogance.

The answer has always been something along the lines of this is where the sport was born — British claims that it evolved from rounders to the contrary — and the designation is historic. The explanation has been that this is where the game is played on its highest level and where the best gather.

After the inaugural World Baseball Classic, some of those contentions are starting to get whacked around the yard like, well, Dontrelle Willis' pitches (he of the 12.71 earned run average in the WBC).

The U.S. exit — "humiliation" a Korean paper headlined it — with a 3-3 record on its home turf after pool play should be an eye-opener. That it has played out in the shadows of March Madness should not let its message be overlooked.

It says, for example, that the world is catching up. The huge lead we thought we had on the world can someday go the way of once-upon-a-time Olympic basketball dominance.

Sure, the U.S. didn't have its complete galaxy of stars in the WBC. And, yes, in a short series, particularly early in the spring, anything can happen.

But in the WBC, the U.S. didn't even win the North American Series. It split with Mexico and lost to Canada. It needed a controversial call, by a U.S. ump, no less, to beat Japan. The U.S. still fielded a collective salary roster of more than $90 million — or about 18 times that of South Korea, we're told, to which it lost, 7-3.

It isn't just that the U.S. team lost three times but how. Team USA was largely dependent upon the home run and not as adept at small ball as the teams it was supposed to beat. Nor was its defense as sound. You also had to wonder about the preparedness and motivation.

There are parallels with basketball, where more fundamentally sound players from other countries have taken it to the U.S. in Olympic and world competition in recent years.

Once, foreign players in the majors were a novelty. No longer. MLB said nearly 30 percent of last year's roster places were held by international players, a figure that grows annually. And as South Korea, a team that played errorless ball for six games, underlined, they know the game.

"For so long we have been the teachers (of baseball) around the world," Team USA manager Buck Martinez acknowledged on MLB.com. "Now, I think there's something to be learned from teams like Korea and Japan; execution and work ethic."

Baseball was introduced to Korea and Japan by American missionaries a little more than century ago. Now, recent evidence suggests there are some lessons to be learned here, too. For when it comes to baseball, maybe we are no longer the world but a part of it.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.