There’s an excellent article on The Hardball Times website today all about the current state of baseball throughout the world.Â
It’s well worth reading, particularly to see how Europe is starting to make some positives steps in providing talent to Major League teams. Rick van den Hurk has showed that it is possible for European talent to make it to the big leagues and it would be great to see some more follow over the next few years. Maybe even a Brit or two in the future?
It was interesting to read about the previous success of the Australian Baseball League and the signs that it may make a come back are very positive. If you want to really sell a sport to a nation, you have to give them an opportunity to go out and watch competitive live games being played, to enjoy the atmosphere and the spectacle etc. Once more, you can’t help but bemoan the fact that baseball won’t be a part of the 2012 London Olympics. Sure, it wouldn’t have created any great groundswell of baseball fanaticism, but it would have been a start at least.
Anyway, us Brits know all too well how sports-mad the Aussies are, so you would expect them to produce some good players if they put their minds to it. And the same can be said for South Africa. Judging by this article, maybe some of their next generation will turn to baseball instead of cricket? Could be good news for the England cricket team at least, although by the same token it might reduce the amount of players we can poach from them.
Incidentally, you will notice that this article is an excerpt from the 2008 Hardball Times Baseball Annual. I have bought the last two editions of this book and can heartily recommend them. They contain a mix of great writing about the season that has just gone, alongside some historical and more general baseball articles (such as this one) and some fascinating baseball research essays. And that’s just half the book. The rest is crammed full of statistics from the previous season. I have to admit that I haven’t got around to buying this year’s edition yet, although I’m planning to get it in February (I’ve just ordered three other books and sadly I can’t afford to spend too much on them each month, although that’s probably a good thing judging by the fast-shrinking space on my bookshelves!). I’ll endeavour to post a book review when I get a copy.
