How has baseball become a global phenomenon?

I’m interested in this question/ topic because I know that I’m not going to get bored reading about baseball and also I have played baseball a lot in my life I love to learn about the game. I expect to find out how baseball got popular in different countries and the different stories on hove baseball became that countryman sport. Is going to be hard to find information that goes against what I’m expecting because I know a lot about baseball but if it happens I will learn about it.

McMaster, Michael. “The Globalization of Baseball.” Bleacher Report, Bleacher Report, 3 Oct. 2017, https://bleacherreport.com/articles/178183-the-globalization-of-baseball.

Summary:  The Globalization of Baseball written by Michael Mcmaster on May 18, 2009, is an article that talks about how in the United States baseball is more than a sport, that is a tradition passed down from generation. The origins of baseball are unknown, but Americans believe it was created by Union soldier  Abner Doubleday in Cooperstown in 1839. Over the next two centuries, baseball evolved into a national phenomenon, making stars and heroes out of household names like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Jackie Robinson. Although the United States is where baseball is played on the biggest stage there are also some other countries like Mexico and Japan where they also have a baseball league.  The world baseball classic is an event like the Olympics every country has a team of baseball players(of that country) and plays against each other. In this event, the United States has a big problem and is that there’s the best play don’t go to this event and play because they believe that there a lot of risk of getting hurt and not being able to play for their regular team, especially pitcher because they have the most probability of getting hurt. Baseball is no longer America’s sport is now a sport of the world. In this article, he uses Key Quotes like, “Baseball can no longer be contained within the borders of America’s 50 states”. In this quote what he wasn’t to say is that baseball is no longer popular only in America, baseball is a sport that is played at a professional level in more than 19 countries and we can see that in the 2023 Wold Classic where is projected to have 20 teams of 20 different countries play against each other. Rhetorical Analysis: Michael McMaster is a developmental biologist and educator and joined the UCSF faculty in 1994. Dr. McMaster is the Director of the Biomedical Sciences stream with primary responsibility for the basic science curriculum in the first and second years of Dental School. The primary audience is people who want to know more about the sport and how it got so popular also people who are new to the sport and want to learn more about it. McMaster published this in  2009  because baseball had a lot of players like Miguel Cabrera, and Albert Pujol in their prime, so it was getting popularity after some dawn years. McMaster wants people to know that baseball is not just a United States sport there are some other countries that have a professional league. The author sounds proud of the sport and its growth, he also sounds sad when he talks about how players from the United States don’t play in the BWC.
More Key Quotes: “Baseball is no longer America’s sport; now, it belongs to the world. The World Baseball Classic provides a stage for the world to compete. As nations compete, the world will look on, and hopefully, America will too”.  “In the United States, baseball is much more than a sport. It is a tradition, passed down from generations, woven into the beautiful fabric of American society”.

Cremonesi, Rafael Rojas. “Why Are Venezuelans so Crazy about Beisbol?” Caracas Chronicles, 2 Jan. 2016, https://www.caracaschronicles.com/2016/01/02/why-are-venezuelans-so-crazy-about-beisbol/.

Summary: In the article “Why are Venezuelans so crazy about beisbol” by Rafael Rojas Cremoise, Rojas talks about the big impact that the game of baseball has had in Venezuela. In a quote, Rojas says    “It’s the national pastime – bueno, alongside politics. It has become a big part of Venezuelan culture and embedded itself into the way we speak: we’re not in a tough spot, you’re “en tres y dos”. Venezuelans are never baffled, they have a  “cara de poncha’o”. We don’t do great, “la botamos de jonron”.  This quote shows that baseball has such a significant impact on the people that they are replacing normal words with baseball phrases. In Venezuela, the first baseball was called “Carasco BBC”, It was created in 1895, but in Venezuela baseball started getting popular with Juan Vicente Gomez who was the president of Venezuela in 1908. In 1941 the Venezuela baseball team played in the “Amateur Baseball World Series in Cuba” where they won the title; in that team where players such as Daniel Canonico(Chino), José Antonio Casanova, Atilano “Pollo” Malpica, and Guillermo Vento who now are legends in Venezuela and remember as “Los Heroes del 41.”   Now a day in the MLB Venezuela has a lot of star players like Ronald Acuna Jr, Jose Altuve, Miguel Cabrera, and many more.  Rhetorical Analysis: Rafael Rojas Cremoise is a sports writer with more than 15 years of experience. Rojas wrote this article to show the history of baseball in Venezuela and why it is important. This article was written on January 2, 2016, with is one year away from the day that a  Venezuelan-born player won the World Series MVP. The genre is Non-fiction, he uses this genre because in the best way to prove his points.  Rojas had an informative tone and a fun way to tell the reader about his points. He uses Ethos/ credibility to prove his point. For example, “There’s simply no way to put into words how passionate Venezuelans are when it comes to baseball”.   To prove this point they said, “Current superstars include Miguel Cabrera, the first Triple Crown winner (2012) since Carl Yastrzemski did it in 1967, and Cy Young winner Felix Hernandez, who pitched a perfect game in 2012”. Quote Sandwich: In the article, “Why are Venezuelans so crazy about beisbol” by Rafael Rojas Cremoise, he wrote, “It’s the national pastime – Bueno, alongside politics. It has become a big part of Venezuelan culture and embedded itself into the way we speak: we’re not in a tough spot, you’re “en tres y dos”. Venezuelans are never baffled, they have a  “cara de poncha’o”. We don’t do great, “la botamos de jonron”.  What Rojas wants to say is that in Venezuela baseball has become a phenomenon that everyone enjoys, to a point that people are using baseball phrases in their normal life. For me, this means that if you talk about Venezuela you need to talk about baseball. I agree/relate with this quote because these are words that I use with my friends and we as  Dominican related a lot with Venezuelans.

Rodriguez, Julio M. “Early History of Baseball in the Dominican Republic.” Society for American Baseball Research, Sabr /Wp-Content/Uploads/2020/02/sabr_logo.Png, 22 Oct. 2022, https://sabr.org/research/article/early-history-of-baseball-in-the-dominican-republic/.

Summary: In the article “Early History of Baseball in the Dominican Republic”, by Julio M. Rodriguez, Rodrigues he talks about the early stages of baseball and how everything started. Rodrigues said that baseball began in the Dominican Republic when two brothers from Cuva named Ignacio and Ubaldo left Cuva to come and live in Dominica in 1891, they were the ones that organized the first game of baseball in the Dominican Republic. Dominican people liked it so much that in 1907 they created their first baseball team named “Licey” and three years later in 1910 they created another team named “Estrellas Orientales”. Baseball became such a big thing that in 1911 the first stadium for baseball was built in D.R. During the American Intervention in 1916 when the games really took off, Rodrigues wrote, “During the years of the intervention, many games were played between Dominican teams and teams made of US Marines who came on Navy warships. To see Dominican teams beat those American teams was one of the greatest pleasures of the population during those years”.  In this quote, Rodrigues talks about the games that the Dominican team and U.S mariners played and how happy people were when the Dominican team beat the U.S marines team. This means that  Dominican players were getting good at baseball and the people were enjoying it.
In 1922 the first tournament was set between the two teams in D.R, Licey, and Escogido. The tournament was set to 30 games whereas Escoguido beat Licey 23 games to 9. The first Dominican player to play baseball in the U.S was Mero Ureña in 1925, but he only played in the minor leagues in 1926 the first Dominican player to play in the American Negro leagues was Pedro Alejandro San. After that Dominicans have a thing a big part in baseball for example Rodrigues wrote, “In 1983 Juan Marichal, also from Montecristi, became the first Dominican player to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown”. Having a Hall of Fame player born in the Dominican Republic was one of the best things that happen to baseball in D.R. Rhetorical Analysis: Julio M. Rodrigues was born in Montecristi Dominican Republic and is a board-certified pediatrician there. Rodriguez wrote this article so people can learn about the early history of baseball in the Dominican Republic and it became so popular and important. Rodrigues wrote this article on 22 Oct. 2022, with is the year that a lot of Dominican players like Manny Machado, Julio Rodrigues(From Montecristi), Jose Ramirez, and many others are showing why D.R has some of the best players in the game. This article was created for people like me that want to know more about the game sog baseball and how it got popular in other countries other than the U.S. Rodrigues used a calm tone but he went over a lot of information about the history of the game. I dint like his choices I feel like it was really broad to read because the no images or something to call the reader’s attention.  In my opinion, this can have a negative on the reader because although it has a lot of good information like I said it doesn’t have anything to call attention to.
Quote Sandwich: In the article “Early History of Baseball in the Dominican Republic”, by Julio M. Rodriguez, he wrote, “Dominicans liked the game and began to organize teams. In 1907 Licey was founded in Santo Domingo. In 1910 the Estrellas Orientales (Oriental Stars) was organized in San Pedro de Macorís. A number of other short-lived teams were organized over the years”.What Rodriguez wants to say is that baseball and D.R was love at first sight. For me, this quote means that baseball is a big part of the history of the Dominican Republic and also that the Dominican Republic is a big part of baseball since it is the second country that has the most player in the MLB, after the U.S. I agree with this quote and I’m a big example that in D.R baseball is a normal that everyone has played in there life and every Dominican grow up with the dream of being a professional baseball player.

Conclusion:  After spending hours looking researching how has baseball become a global phenomenon I found out that baseball is more than a spot for some people like me, baseball can a lot of things in a person’s life, for example in article number two we can see how people in Venezuela are using baseball phrases used of using normal words. I also found how that for every country baseball is a different story and had a similar impact on the people. For countries like Dominican Republic and Venezuela even though baseball is not their sport now a day baseball is a sport that represents who they are and are the main sport in their countries.  Here in the United States, we all know how baseball especially here in New York where we have two of the best teams in the games the average of people that go to a New York Yankee game is 40,207, and for the Mets is 33,308, these are top three and top six in 2022.

A lot of things surprised something that surprised me and how to have a different story on how it because a phenomenon in every country, for example in D.R baseball was first played because two brothers Cuba came to D.R play a game and people liked it so much to that it because the country number one sport. Another that surprised me is how much the game of baseball has grown and how much it has changed before there was a league for black people called “The Negro League” and a league for white people. Now day people from every country and every color, baseball has also grown a lot, in 2022 more than 108 million people attended baseball without counting the postseason. I learned a lot of important things that for a baseball fan can mean a lot because for me baseball is like a girlfriend, I want to know everything, and I want to know where she is from and all of that. I think that the people that need to know this are people who are big baseball fans and want to know how the game is not only in the United States but in there are important countries to the sport like Venezuela and the Dominican Republic.