A topic I often return to in all my baseball writing is my amazement at the global nature of the professional game. No matter what is going on in the baseball world I am consistently fascinated and impressed by how far the professional game has grown in even the short time I have been a fan of the larger baseball world. During the time of a pandemic when professional baseball is only being played in South Korea and Taiwan this is more the case than ever before.
The immediacy of the baseball in front of us makes it easy to lose track of the impressiveness of what we are seeing. I can turn on ESPN and watch a game between the Samsung Lions and Lotte Giants. I know do this without blinking an eye. I’m aware, as are most fans I believe, that once Major League Baseball starts back up ESPN’s interest in the Korea Baseball Organization will die off. That doesn’t for a single second change how incredible it is to be able to watch a KBO game on America’s sports channel.
I’ve been a fan of the Chinese Professional Baseball League for a few years now. I still have my usual Mandarin feeds I can watch but now I can also find live streams of the games with English language commentary. That is an amazing thing to write on my computer screen. It wasn’t even a pipe dream before this season, it was a complete non-starter. Yet here we are with games taking place in Taiwan being live-streamed in English.
At the same time I am eagerly awaiting the resumption of baseball in Countries like Mexico, Cuba, Japan, Italy, and more. Most of the professional leagues the world over don’t even have return dates set yet, but at some point most of them will return. The game of baseball is the most global it has ever been and it is simply glorious to be a part of watching and writing about professional baseball at this point in time. If you’re not watching you don’t know what you’re missing out on and your loss is everyone else’s gain. Pro baseball has always been a global affair. With each passing year we are allowed more access to what pro baseball around the world has to offer and it is a ride I am thrilled to be on.
Lead photo courtesy of Unknown – Unknown
