The MLB Reaches Out to the Rest of the World | IXGAMES

When Major League Baseball (MLB) was first founded in 1869, the league catered primarily to North America.  Since then, the league has grown into the biggest and the most popular professional baseball league in the world.  Major League Baseball has attracted spectators and professional athletes from all around the globe.  Thanks to the efforts of the MLB, baseball players, and baseball lovers in general, the game has spread around the world, especially in the Asia-Pacific region, Latin America, and the Caribbean.  In 2010, the MLB is seeking to break even more boundaries by reaching out beyond North American borders to make stronger connections with the rest of the world.  Here are some of the latest efforts of the MLB to reach out to the global baseball community: The Florida Marlins “Visit Our Troops: Iraq 2010” mission The Florida Marlins have sent representatives to Iraq and Kuwait to visit the American troops at various military bases.  As a collaborative effort between the Marlins, the MLB and the Armed Forces Entertainment (AFE), the main mission is to spend some time with the troops to show them support and perhaps even play some catch since the military approved a request to bring baseballs and gloves.  They are the first Major League Baseball team to send representatives to visit the troops in the Middle East and they will be there for around one week.  Some of the representatives from the Florida Marlins franchise who will be visiting to support the troops include the National League Rookie of the Year Chris Coghlan, catcher John Baker, franchise manager Fredi Gonzalez, director of marketing and promotion Matt Britten, and president of baseball operations Larry Beinfest.  Aside from visiting the troops, the Marlins representatives spent some time to visit and speak with around 300 children who are part of the Kuwait Little League program. The MLB commissioner’s efforts to push for a global World Series Early this year, another MLB effort to reach out to the global baseball community was expressed by the league’s commissioner, Bud Selig.  Selig has proposed to organize for a global World Series, which is to be between the Major League Baseball champions and the Nippon Professional Baseball league, which is based in Japan.  The Japanese interest, zeal, and love for baseball is perhaps second only to that of the Americans, and in the past years, Japan’s professional baseball league, Nippon Professional Baseball, has grown by leaps and bounds.  In fact, some Major League Baseball teams regularly send scouts to Japan to look for recruits.  When Selig pitched his proposition for a global World Series to the Nippon Professional Baseball commissioner Ryozo Kato, Kato was enthused and the two plan on making a combined and continued effort to push through with the plans before Selig’s term as commissioner ends in 2012.