This week, I want to dig a little deeper into the subject of globalization and look at how the worldwide popularity of the sport has changed the game. If you read my last post, you will remember that I briefly mentioned the World Baseball Classic and the number of different countries that participated this year. One of the ways that the globalization of baseball has developed the sport is that it has decentralized the level of professional talent from the United States and spread it out across the globe. The World Baseball Classic is no longer dominated by the United States and it hasn’t been for some time. Countries like Puerto Rico, The Dominican Republic, Mexico, Japan, and others have developed the sport of baseball, through amateur and professional leagues and development camps, so that they now have extremely competitive teams that are able to compete and win at the World Baseball Classic. In the last five installments of the World Baseball Classic, the United States has only won once.
The World Baseball Classic is a great way to look at the global development of the game. With the development of talent around the world, the sport is growing exponentially and improving the level of talent we see at the professional level each year.
