Should baseball be REALLY global?

[ElVenado]

Hi, guys! What I mean by this is one thing it seems to be unnoticed or just dismissed as non important.
Why isn't baseball as popular as other sports (soccer, basketball, *american* football)? IMO that's an easy answer: every other league than the MLB is treated as "minor". It's a fact every other league's players are to do their best effort to make it to the MLB.
What if MLB was only the US professional league? What if Puertorrican league were "majors" too? what if Venezuela's was? what if Mexican league was?
That -I assume- would produce the following results:

1. More baseball fans.
2. More kids wanting to play the game. Those kids will be either professional players or grown ups with money in their pockets, hehe
3. An increase in people interested in the game. Any other sports fan wanting to know more about baseball.
4. Other countries' teams would have their own "minor" league teams, with the consecuent boom in professional players production.

Let's just take basketball for example: almost everybody knows Michael Jordan and what he did for his game, wether they play basketball or not. How many of that people know there's a man named Barry Bonds in race to tie -an maybe break- the all-time homerun record?
Come on! americans invented the game and it's america's pastime, that's for sure; but it's time to share it. Sometimes it seems MLB wants to keep its "precious" (sorry, couldn't help it ) to americans, and the next day they shout out loud baseball should be spread all around the globe... will they make their minds up someday?
English invented soccer, and they made sure it spread all around they were...
It's not like they'll -the MLB- lose their power. Just look at soccer; every soccer player I know, wants to play in Spanish or English League because of their high salaries and glamour and everything sorrounding that. And yet then, all other soccer professional leagues keep their economic power as Italian and German leagues; just look at the mediocre Mexican soccer league, many of its players don't want to play elsewhere because they're well paid here.
Should baseball in other countries be treated "as equal" considering this points I stated here?

peace!
Alex

[aarond23]

I just think comparing baseball to soccer isn't really a fair comparison.

There are just so many more soccer players in the world than baseball players. There isn't just one soccer league in any country so I don't see why there should be just one baseball league in the US or any other country.

The best soccer players gravitate toward the rich Western countries and it just so happens that the US is the only rich Western country with baseball as a major sport.

[brewcrew82]

Well, you asked why baseball isn't as popular as football. *American* Football is not a globally followed sport, baseball on the other hand is big in the Caribbean, and parts of Asia. Baseball has more of an international presence than football but domestically plays second fiddle due to, in large part, the ease in which one can gamble on football.

Like it or not, baseball in the world outside of the US (latin America and Asia) is a niche sport similar to the way cricket is in the US.

[aarond23]

I think the main theories that I've heard as to why American football and even NASCAR has taken over from baseball as the most popular sports in America is because these are easier to follow in baseball, just one game a week or one race a week.

I think as brewcrew said gambling on football is much more prevelant than gambling on baseball.

I can actually understand why some people don't have the patience or time for 162 3 or 4 hour baseball games a year but as for myself its always been my favorite and always will be.

[brewcrew82]

I think the main theories that I've heard as to why American football and even NASCAR has taken over from baseball as the most popular sports in America is because these are easier to follow in baseball, just one game a week or one race a week.

...and people get hurt. Believe me, that it reason enough for people to watch these sports.

[Mike_Piazza]

I think baseball should be more global but there is not a tradition in baseball about international competitions and it's difficult to build something from scratch.
The dream of every kid in Italy is winning soccer world cup,the dream of every kid in USA is winning World Series,there is not a tradition or history about international competitions and tradition,in american baseball,is very important.
I think MLB baseball had the WBC idea because was envious about the way basketball went global in last years (basketball has a great success in Europe),but now i'm not sure they know how to manage the international competitions with the 162 games MLB regular season.

[ElVenado]

This pretty much remembers me of the movie "A league of their own"... MLB wants that, a league of their own.
If you look at other sports (except basketball), baseball players earn less for every game they play. Just do the math...
What I mean is... should baseball season be "cut"? instead of 162 games, what about the half of them, the same or less pay to every player and play only 1 series a week?. Half the series at home and the other half away.
IMO, when games are scarce, people is eager to watch them. Check at NFL. They only play what? 16 games a season? they earn as much as a baseball player and people is REALLY eager to watch not only the Super Bowl, but a single game too. I've never been to a football game, I don't know if tickets cost the same as baseball tickets, besides beer, hotdogs, nachos, and everything you eat while there.
We, as baseball fans, want more and more. But what about half the season?
In México, we have 2 leagues: winter league and summer league. The latter being played simultaneously with MLB.
Summer league directives are trying to find the way people goes to the stadium, but when you have mid-week games, most people don't want to spend their money in them when they can spend it on the weekends, or maybe they're just to tired to attend a game other than weekend.
In the other hand, despite having mid-week games, most people goes to the stadium, because, there are too few games, if they miss one, they regret it...
MLB needs to empower other leagues in order to progress itself...

[FlashGordon]

I think baseball needs to go global to survive. Interest in the U.S., particularly in the African-American community, is waning and we need more and more players from abroad to keep the level of play up. If the rest of the world is going to be our draft pool, the more we can do to promote interest abroad, the better the quality of players. I think a WBC every 3 years or so is a good idea for starters.