SPORTS | Striving for excellence
24 July 2008
Baseball, Once Just an American Game, Extends Reach Worldwide
Many foreign-born players now star in United States as sport flourishes overseas
Washington -- When major league baseball introduced the “World Series” as its season-ending championship matchup in 1903, the name was an exercise in hyperbole.
The sport was strictly American in nature, the bulk of players and managers were U.S. natives as well, and the claim that the series would determine the “professional baseball championship of the world” was hollow.
But now, after a steady influx of foreign-born players, the once grandiose “World Series” designation finally has gained some legitimacy. Many of the world’s best players now come to the United States to demonstrate their skills -- and to earn the multimillion dollar paychecks typical for major league stars.
The “World” aspect has become a reality -- at least in terms of team makeup -- even if the “Series” itself continues to involve only teams based in North America. The 2007 World Series-winning Boston Red Sox, for example, included players from the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Japan, Canada and Puerto Rico.
At the start of the 2007 season, Major League Baseball reported, 246 of the 849 players on team rosters were born outside the United States. That came to 29 percent of all players, almost matching the 29.2 percent record set in 2005.
THE CRADLE OF SHORTSTOPS
The Dominican Republic produced most of those players, 98, followed by Venezuela with 51, Puerto Rico (28), Canada (19), Japan and Mexico (13 each), Panama (seven), Cuba (six), South Korea (three), Colombia and Taiwan (two each), and Aruba, Australia, Curacao and Nicaragua (one each). The New York Mets alone included on their 40-man roster 15 players born abroad.
The Dominican Republic has led in such listings for years -- and San Pedro de Macorís, with a population of some 200,000, has had an amazing distinction. Baseball-Reference.com reports that 70 players in major league history were born in that one town. Even more incredible, San Pedro was the birthplace of the shortstops for five of the 26 major league teams in 1989 and 1990 -- lending credence to its nickname, “The Cradle of Shortstops.”
The New York Yankees, probably the most successful and richest of U.S. professional sports teams, in 2007 expanded ongoing efforts to court Latin American fans: they created a new Department of Latino Affairs.
Saying, “In the United States, Latinos are the largest minority group, and, in the baseball world, they constitute the highest percentage of foreign-born Major League Baseball players,” the team has launched outreach efforts that include a new Spanish-language Web site, yankeesbeisbol.com. And it has given three political leaders, the presidents of the Dominican Republic and Panama and the governor of Puerto Rico, the honor of throwing out the first pitch at individual ballgames.
A number of former Cuban pitching greats, including half-brothers Liván and Orlando (“El Duque”) Hernández, also have become major league stars. For the Cubans, the situation is unique: Due to restrictions on leaving Cuba and that country’s hostile relations with the United States, those now playing here have defected to do so. (See “Latino Contributions to Major League Baseball Exhibited in United States.”)
PULL OF THE RISING SUN
Japan, where baseball has been immensely popular since the 1940s, also has scored big in the United States.
In March, the Boston Red Sox and Oakland Athletics traveled to Tokyo to hold their league’s season-opening games, the third time since 2000 that U.S. baseball inaugurated its season in Japan. The teams split the two games, with Red Sox pitching ace Daisuke Matsuzaka -- a hometown hero in Tokyo -- starting the opener. Matsuzaka, affectionately called “Dice-K” by Red Sox fans, left the game in the sixth inning and his team fell behind. But the Sox rallied to win for Hideki Okajima, a Kyoto native, who pitched a scoreless ninth inning. Fans in Boston watched the game on live television at 6 a.m.
Two other Japanese superstars also have had huge success in the United States -- Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners and Hideki Matsui of the New York Yankees.
And Japan has not lagged far behind in globalizing its own game. As of January 20, Japanese teams had signed 62 foreign players for the 2008 season, including ones from the United States, Canada, Australia, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, South Korea and Taiwan.
BIG IN CHINA
Meanwhile, Major League Baseball is trying to expand its presence in China, almost 50 years after Mao Zedong banned the sport there:
• The Yankees have entered into a contract with the Chinese Baseball Association to help develop players.
• In March, the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres played a pair of exhibition games in Beijing.
• On March 31, officials announced the launch of a new Web site, www.major.tv/china, that will enable Chinese baseball fans to access highlights, scores, photographs, statistics and some games via an Internet service using simplified Chinese. (See “First Chinese Baseball Players Signed To Play in United States.”)
"I feel we're making inroads,” Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig told reporters after attending the Beijing games. "We will continue to do what we can to accelerate the process. In fact, I feel so good about it, I have no doubt in my mind that in a decade, baseball will be big in China.”
In March 2006, the idea of a true international championship finally became reality as 16 national baseball teams held the first World Baseball Classic. With many U.S. major leaguers playing for their homelands, Japan beat Cuba in the finale. The United States, which finished eighth, will get another chance in a repeat event scheduled for 2009. (See “The World Baseball Classic a Global Salute to the Sport.”)
In the 1940s, comedians Bud Abbott and Lou Costello were identified with a routine in which they satirized the supposedly “strange names” of baseball players. Their mythical players included “Who” at first base, “What” at second and “I Don’t Know” at third. The skit centered on Costello’s frustrated confusion as he asked, “Who’s on first?” and Abbott responded, “Yes.”
This year, with the internationalization of the game in full swing, the Los Angeles Dodgers have a Taiwanese shortstop named Hu -- Chin-Lung Hu.
Abbott and Costello would have been amazed.
