Could the Game Truly Go International?

Could Major League Baseball truly go international and have a team outside of the United States? This may be harder to answer than I make it out to be but truly I believe the game could with a little creativity and lots of security. Already Major League Baseball has a team in Canada and with the growing love for the game in South American countries such as Cuba, Venezuela and Mexico to name a few a team could end up there in the near future in my opinion.


Revenue in MLB rose to just under $9 billion during the 2014 season without tapping many potential markets outside of the United States and around the globe and it continued to soar sky high is 2015 as well. The move outside the United States would have to start slow and start small with a team right over the border in Mexico, Monterrey maybe or even Mexico City, and security would be a nightmare to begin with but if MLB could make this work then the sky is the limit for the league. With the popularity of baseball in countries like Japan, Korea, Cuba, Australia, Columbia, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela and even smaller countries like Curacao the game could explode internationally and truly set itself apart from the rest of the sports world.

It’s a dream now as we stand here in 2016 but this, in my opinion, is and should be the long term goal and vision for the game. Call me progressive and call me a dreamer but its coming ladies and gentleman so prepare yourselves for it.

MLB to Begin Streaming in China

First Major League Baseball announces that you can buy just Yankees games and not the entire 30 MLB team package on their MLB.TV service and now they announcer streaming will begin in China? What a week! No really though I am excited about this because it potentially grows the brand and grows the sport, just like Rob Manfred said he was going to do when he took over as Commissioner of Major League Baseball.

Manfred and company announced a three-year strategic partnership between MLB and Le Sports in China to stream Major League games to fans that live in the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Macau. This would mark the first mass market MLB media agreement in China in the league’s history. Le Sports would hold exclusive rights in China to broadcast 125 MLB games per season along with Mandarin-language MLB programming such as the MLB Network.

The Chinese will now receive four live games per week in high definition during the regular season (96 games total), 20 postseason games, the All-Star Game, the Home Run Derby and all the World Series games. In addition to these games Le Sports will also continue to co-produce the reality show MLB Perfect Pitch and will also broadcast MLB Beijing University Baseball League and MLB Shanghai University Baseball League opening and final games this season.