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Selling Baseball to Japan and the World
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Major League Baseball took a major step forward when they opened up the 2000 season in Tokyo, Japan in an attempt to make baseball as international as basketball and soccer.
It is interesting the baseball would choose Japan for this attempt at baseball diplomacy and it remains to be seen whether baseball will ever be popular in the Far East. However, we also realize this is just a first step as baseball will attempt to expand it's reach all over the world. Besides Japan, Major League Baseball is expected to try and sell their sport to such areas as Latin America and the Caribbean. Such countries as the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and even Cuba have been discussed as possible areas that hopefully baseball can someday become popular. We agree with this effort
And while we applaud baseball's goodwill efforts, we have serious doubts that baseball will ever be popular in Japan. The land of the Rising Sun, where teamwork, discipline, and loyalty are important virtues, baseball seems out of place. Will Japan have what it takes to appreciate the leisurely, boring pace of the game. And how do you explain the theory of switching teams for more money or doing drugs or other baseball staples? To the Japanese, American baseball will seem as foreign to them as the overwhelming appeal of Pokemon seems to us.
But even if baseball is never popular in Japan at least the effort was made. And that may not even be the proper metric to measure whether this is a success of not. The real goal may be to build understanding and trust between the two countries. And if Japan can accept baseball maybe we can accept Japanese cars and electronics.
©2000 Copyright David Oliver
DISCLAIMER: These stories are not true. No really. It's all just a joke, you know for fun.
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