Posted by italyprof on 11/5/2022 9:29:00 AM (view original):
Posted by jmcraven74 on 10/30/2022 2:00:00 PM (view original):
Posted by DoctorKz on 10/30/2022 12:06:00 PM (view original):
I think many of them want to play against the best, and the potential earnings play a role. No different than a Swede or Czech wanting to play NHL hockey, instead of Swedish Elite or KHL..Why would I want to go to Japan to play for the Yoshi Hot Dogs? Ovechkin and Jagr could have stayed overseas, but the NHL is the pinnacle of professional hockey...if I'm a poor kid pitching in Venezuela or Cuba, you're going to tell me I can't come to America to play ball, that I gotta go to Havana or Puerto Rico to make a living chasing my dream?
We've let 1.8M illegals enter this year alone, but maybe a few hundred ballplayers aren't welcome? Some battle you're picking...Are they on your lawn?
A conservative telling a liberal to allow people to chase a dream, instead of telling a kid to stay in his lane. I can't make this **** up...Wylie, please tell mudbone1969 to come back, I need his help...
Well said. It really is an exercise in mental gymnastics to get prof's POV.
Merit aside, I'm not sure why he thinks international players help only one stakeholder. MLB has an international audience, and international players help expand that revenue market for MLB, which in turn helps all teams and their player development.
Because like all cheap labor, their recruitment prevents - and MLB teams are interested in Latin American and some other overseas players ONLY because it is cheaper than developing American-born players, or even immigrant players who live in the USA. That is the only reason. It isn't to gain markets particularly, since a Dominican-born or Korean-born player who emigrated to the US and lives there (and would be exempt therefore from my proposed limit of 150 players directly recruited from overseas, which is hardly a Trumpian - or Melonian to refer to our new fascist head of government here in Italy - border closure. It is just a way of creating incentives for MLB teams to develop players in the US. If the Washington Senators had been able to recruit a lot of quality Cuban or Japanese players for a fraction of the cost, no one would have ever discovered Walter Johnson of Iowa pitching out in Idaho. And that today, the numbers of players from overseas are crowding out African American players, robbing baseball and fans (and losing MLB the fans from that important community) of the players and presence that those of us growing up in a different time have recalled with the long lists of names of great players without whom the game would not be what it is or has been.
"the numbers of players from overseas are crowding out African American players..."
I would suggest that the lack of African American players in baseball today is because young African American athletes are choosing basketball and football, not because they want to play baseball and are being denied the opportunity.
The lack of participation of African American players in youth baseball may simply be a symptom of a larger problem, which is lack of interest in baseball by African Americans in general. The last major league baseball game I attended was in Detroit, a majority African American city, and the demographic makeup of the fans in the stands was overwhelmingly White.
Just my two cents...