International Baseball: Growth in Europe, Brazil, and the World

Well, I was working on a response to another ESPN piece, but this one will be quicker and require a little less prep. Michael Baumann writes about Alex Liddi, the first European born-and-raised MLB player from Italy, and what he means for the game and it’s future.

Liddi is more than likely not a star, so it seems like it would be difficult for MLB to put too much on him right now. If they hype him as a sign of the game’s success in Europe and he then flops, it might have negative long-term effects.

But what can major league teams do to ensure the overseas cultivation of the game? I think one of the biggest things would be to get a star from overseas, like the first Italian/German/Netherlands-born All-Star and hype them, like what happened with Ichiro (and later, Hideki Matsui and others). Except that was a totally different situation; there isn’t some European league making Ichiro-type players, where the best might hold their own in the pro circuit. Getting to that stage will take time.