Dreaming of Baseball Globalization

[Rice Cube]

The Cubs and Dodgers play the only international MLB series this year in Tokyo, but could the league do more to push globalization and engage more fans around the world with greater frequency?

Image courtesy of © Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images

The Cubs and Dodgers are making headlines in Japan right now as goodwill ambassadors for Major League Baseball, but unlike previous seasons, it seems that the upcoming Tokyo Series is it for 2025 in terms of international MLB competitions. The main issue appears to be economical, as MLB commissioner Rob Manfred suggested that the games in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and other venues outside of Japan were not good business decisions in 2025—unlike Tokyo, where the fan base and interest are so fevered (plus the local cuisine, but I doubt MLB cares about that too much). The only other international adventure this season is an exhibition series in Monterrey, Mexico, where the Boston Red Sox will play before they head to Texas for Opening Day.

Regular-season big-league baseball has been played outside the United States and Canada quite a few times over the years, including the batch of games played in Puerto Rico for the last years of the Montreal Expos franchise before they moved to Washington, D.C. In addition to San Juan, the other venues mostly have their own professional leagues, including the Australian Baseball League (that flight to and from Perth has to suck), the Korean Baseball Organization (KBO in Korea), Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB in Japan), and of course the Mexican League, former home of baseball legend Jake Taylor. The league has also played in London, which is an interesting choice given that the United Kingdom only has a governing body and not exactly a professional league, but perhaps that will change in the future. 

The current Collective Bargaining Agreement calls for games in San Juan, Mexico City, and London in 2026, but the league canceled games in two of those locales plus Paris for 2025, so it's hard to know where the league will actually play international games (if there will be any at all) next year. I know that the usual suspects in Japan, Korea, Australia, Mexico, and the U.K. will be considered, but the world is huge, and so many other communities love baseball. We don't even have to get crazy here. Just looking at the nations represented in the World Baseball Classic (including qualifying rounds), there are unreached hotbeds of baseball. We do have to consider the business side, though, as in whether MLB believes they would have enough return on investment for whatever journies they undertake. Let's take a little trip around this blue marble we call home, in no particular order except that this is the order in which they occurred to me.

Option 1: Puerto Rico (or Hawai'i)
The main venue in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Hiram Bithorn Stadium, was host to about a quarter of the games played by the Expos in the two seasons before they became the Nationals, and also a handful of regular-season games by other clubs since. In a minimalist sense, the stadium is MLB-capable, and of course, Puerto Rico is always represented well in WBC play. The U.S. colony is home to many of the greatest stars, now and throughout the game's history. Absorbing Puerto Rico into the MLB Draft in 1989 really messed with the production of great talents from the archipelago for a while, but we're now well into the renaissance of boricua ballplayers.

As you may have guessed, though, Puerto Rico's economy isn't particularly strong, so even if the interest is there, it might not be the boondoggle the sport seeks for these events. It may be easier to do this in an actual US state like Alaska or Hawai'i—the latter of which used to actually have a professional league of sorts, and a pretty solid stadium at the University of Hawai'i. While each of those options would come with more profound travel headaches, Puerto Rico is also farther from the rest of the country than you might think, and the previous series there have drained a bit of the novelty from the event. Honolulu, by contrast, hasn't seen regular-season MLB action since 1997.

Option 2: The Netherlands
The Dutch have been a popular rooting interest in recent World Baseball Classics, as we were introduced to "Honkbal". That's how I learned that Curaçao was a Dutch territory, and thus that players from that Caribbean island were allowed to represent the Netherlands in international competition. Star players from the island include near-Hall of Famer Andruw Jones; former Cubs legend Andrelton Simmons; Kenley Jansen; and Ozzie Albies, so Curaçao is well-represented by elite talent.

Given the popularity of baseball in the Netherlands to support a pro league and the Dutch being some of the most eager baseball fans in Europe, it seems like a no-brainer to consider MLB events in Amsterdam or one of the other big cities. The thing with the Honkbal stadiums is that they're rather small, so MLB and the local authorities may have to do it at a soccer stadium instead to accommodate the fans. But outside of the U.K., I can't imagine a more receptive audience than the Dutch.

Option 3: The Dominican Republic
I imagine that, as a developing nation with a growing economy (combined with the very obvious baseball pedigree and multiple Hall of Famers and active players who may one day join the club), the Dominican Republic makes a lot of sense to pack some stadiums, particularly the one that hosts Licey and Escogido. The small island nation is already crazy about baseball, so I doubt you have to convince the locals to make their pitch to MLB, but I guess the main thing—again—is how much they can charge for the tickets and whether MLB can max out their ROI. It's largely irrational, but given the hard time the league has given the Cubs about security as the team tries to win an All-Star Game at Wrigley Field, the Commissioner's office might be reluctant to host an event in Santo Domingo.

Option 4: Italy
Italy has a rich history of baseball of its own, and many famous MLB players can claim the boot as their ancestral land, including Team Italy member and former Cubs legend Anthony Rizzo. While I doubt MLB can convince the leadership in Rome to repurpose the Colosseum to hold an event, there are plenty of baseball and football stadia that can be employed to accommodate fans, and given the relatively small size of the country, it would seem plenty of the baseball fans there would travel to a bigger locale to watch MLB action.

Option 5: France
The planned event in Paris in 2025 was scrapped when MLB couldn't find a promoter, but that shouldn't prevent a future series from being played in France somewhere, including Paris. France has its own baseball organization and seemed to have enough initial interest to get to the planning stages, even if it didn't lift off. It's just a matter of aligning the stars and the dollar/euro signs here.

Option 6: China or Taiwan
There are contentious feelings between China and Taiwan (or Chinese Taipei, as they're known in international competition), but the fact is that China is still the most populous nation in the world, and Taiwan has its own professional league that has yielded some MLB players as well. My guess is that if MLB were to try to expand its circle of influence outside of Japan and Korea, it would be in Taiwan, as Mainland China doesn't seem to like baseball as much. (They sure do love their basketball though, as the NBA has noticed.)

Option 7: India
If nothing else, India has a boatload of people, and therefore a huge pool of talent from which to draw. That was the basis for the "Million Dollar Arm" reality show, which culminated in the Pittsburgh Pirates signing a couple of Indian pitching prospects. This inspired a movie, and while the prospects didn't pan out, it seems at least one of them is living his best life and making a difference. Anyway, yeah, India has a lot of people and at least a fraction of them have to like baseball, right? And one of the teams in the Saudi Baseball United league is (nominally) based in Mumbai, with another in Pakistan, so there is at least some infrastructure in the region. 

Option 8: South America
The more obvious options are Colombia and Venezuela, where baseball is the most popular, but of course, there are also some Brazilian baseball players, including former Cubs legend Yan Gomes. I feel like this would be a long shot, particularly with the societal turmoil in Venezuela, which would necessitate an insane amount of security work that would probably make this venture even more unprofitable than it already is. Ok, forget I said anything. Maybe farther into the future, this can be more feasible, because there's no question that Venezuela and Colombia love baseball. At least playing in South America means big-leaguers can stay in a Western Hemisphere time zone and avoid trashing their body clocks too badly—despite a long plane ride. 

Option 9: Africa
This is an even longer shot than South America. But in neighboring Arabia and the United Arab Emirates there are a couple of those Saudi Baseball United teams, so imagine a baseball game with the backdrop of the Egyptian pyramids or Mount Kilimanjaro behind center field. They did film part of Star Wars in Tunisia, and Casablanca was set in Morocco...but that isn't relevant to the economic issues all parties would have to overcome to make this viable. Yeah, this ain't happening. The closest we get to feasible is probably somewhere in east-central Africa, like Uganda or Kenya. The Dodgers have established an academy in Uganda and signed a player from it this January.

Option 10: Montreal
With the Rays' stadium deal falling apart and various rumors of trying to make Montreal a big-league city again, why not? They probably have to fix up the old Olympic Stadium first, although it was in good enough nick to host an exhibition series on the eve of the season each year until the pandemic. There are other Canadian venues with minor-league affiliates that would probably welcome some majors-caliber action, instead of having to trek to Toronto.

Option 11: Cuba
Just like the other Caribbean nations, Cuba really loves their baseball and has produced many great players. The relationship between the US and Cuba is strained, though, and getting worse almost by the day. Uganda might be a better bet, at least for the foreseeable future. 

Option 12: Antarctica
This is purely facetious, but tell me it wouldn't be cool to see actual emperor penguins flapping in the "stands" (read: the ice outside of whatever boundary they use for the outfield wall). Global climate change means that some parts of the southernmost continent can get pretty warm in their summer, so never say never!

Here's to a fun Tokyo Series, and I am excited to see what may come for 2026 and beyond!

View full article