Yaaaawn. That’s the reaction to the World Series from over here.

Well, that or just generic befuddlement. A significant number of people in this part of the world, Arabs and subcontinenters both, know basically nothing about baseball. I mean, they may not even know the game exists, let alone that Americans and some other random people (Japanese, Koreans, Dominicans?) play it.

So it’s not so much rejection (which would categorize, say, the Brits, who at least know about baseball), as it is just a complete lack of knowledge — and interest.

As an American, I might have taken this a bit more seriously, say, 40 years ago, when baseball was a bigger deal in the U.S., too. Now, even as a baseball fan, I have to concede that America’s national pastime seems headed for No. 3 in the sports heirarchy, slipping behind basketball as well as football — which barreled past ball as the No. 1 U.S. sport decades ago.

Still, we at The National have done some preview material on the St. Louis Cardinals and Texas Rangers … and we even have enough Americans (three) in the sports department to get the terms right in most of our headlines.

Though baseball is not doing itself any favors by becoming every more arcane. I thought explaining ERA to foreigners was tough. The other day a copy editor in our department came over to me to ask about “this OPS thing.” Well …

Probably shouldn’t drop too many of those in type when it’s going to appear in the Gulf. And don’t even try Wins Above Replacement, or some of those other new stats.

What the world thinks of baseball was hammered home when the IOC not only yanked baseball out of the Olympics (after London 2012), it killed off softball, too, just because it reminded them too much of baseball — when it actually is played quite differently.

Baseball is an even harder sell in this World Series because the Brits, for instance, have a notion of whom the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees are. But the Cardinals and Rangers? No idea. None. When you say “Rangers” to any Brit, and nearly anyone from the Commonwealth, they will say, “Football club in Glasgow!”

TV ratings will be down in the U.S., too, because more than a few casual fans remain disinterested in the Texas Rangers, who until last year had never played in a World Series, and are not all that crazy about St. Louis, either — though the Cardinals are pretty clearly the premier National League franchise at this point, the Dodgers have forfeited their right to appear in the discussion.

Watching this will be difficult because anything that begins in the 5-6 p.m. PDT range is brutal over here. In Abu Dhabi, in the UAE, 6 p.m. in California is 5 a.m. the next day, here.

So, yes, the Americans still talk about baseball, a little. I would prefer the Cardinals win, as a National League guy. The Yank who sits next to me in the office is pulling for the Rangers because he is a Braves guy and has some unpleasant history with the Cardinals.

And nearly everyone else in the room … blissfully unaware. If they are talking about sports at all right now, it’s the Champions League or the Rugby World Cup final coming up this weekend. New Zealand versus France.  Won’t be much of a game, but it’s rugby!