Abstract
This article explores the globalization of U.S. Major League Baseball (MLB), measured by the participation of foreign-born players in the sport from 1876 to 2005. Data show that the number of non-native athletes has been increasing since the end of World War II, suggesting that MLB is becoming a more globalized organization. An investigation at regional and country levels reveals that most foreign participants in the 1990s and early 21st century are from Latin America, especially the Dominican Republic. In contrast, most African, European, and Asian countries have shown little sign of participation. This implies that the global reach of MLB is limited. An empirical study of 2005 data suggests that prosperous countries, neighboring countries, or countries having a close political relationship with the U.S. tend to provide more athletes to MLB. In other words, the globalization of MLB is reliant on America’s economic, cultural, and geographic proximity to the rest of the world.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Source: www.uscis.gov.
Source: www.uscis.gov.
Source: www.mlb.com.
Website: www.worldbank.org.
Website: www.imf.org.
Website: www.data.gov.
References
Bairner, A. (2001). Sport, nationalism, and globalization: European and North American perspective. New York: Suny Press.
Bale, J. (1996). Space, place and body culture: Yi-Fu Tuan and a geography of sport. Geografiska Annaler. Series B, Human Geography, 78(3), 163–171.
Bale, J. (2003). Sports geography (2nd ed.). London: E. & F. N. Spon.
Basu, J. (1997). Ping-Pong diplomacy returns to Stanford after 25 years. Last accessed on 3 April 2008 from http://news-service.stanford.edu/pr/97/970715pingpong.html.
Cauvin, H. E. (2000). Baseball; baseball gets serious in a new South Africa. The New York Times, 6/27/2000. Last accessed on 2 April 2008 from http://www.nytimes.com/2000/06/27/sports/baseball-baseball-gets-serious-in-a-new-south-africa.html?ref=baseball.
Chiba, N. (2004). Pacific professional baseball leagues and migratory patterns and trends: 1995–1999. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 28(2), 193–211.
Connor, J. (2006). Welcome to South Africa. Last accessed on April 2, 2008 from http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/worldclassic2006/news/story?id=2291556.
Douglas, D. D. (2002). To be young, gifted, Black and female: a meditation on the cultural politics at play in representations of Venus and Serena Williams. Sociology and Sports, 5. Last accessed on 20 April 2009 from http://physed.otago.ac.nz/sosol/v5i2/v5i2_3.html.
Ellsesser, S. (2007). Big-league hopes begin on dirt field: Ghana developing baseball culture despite lack of support. Last accessed on 2 April 2008 from http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070706&content_id=2070487&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb.
Foer, F. (2004). How Soccer explains the world: An unlikely theory of globalization. New York: HarperCollins.
Friedman, T. (1999). Lexus & the olive tree. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Gratton, C., & Taylor, P. (2000). Economics of sport and recreation. London: Spon Press.
Guevara, A. J. M., & Fidler, D. P. (2002). Stealing lives: The globalization of baseball and the tragic story of Alexis Quiroz. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Hannon, T. (2009). The gentleman’s agreement. Last accessed on 23 July 2009 from http://www.thebaseballpage.com/blog.php/108stitches/article/the-gentle/.
Holton, R. J. (1998). Globalization and the Nation-State. New York: Macmillan.
Kaufman, J., & Patterson, O. (2005). Cross-national cultural diffusion: The global spread of cricket. American Sociological Review, 70(1), 82–110.
Kelly, W. W. (2007). Is baseball a global sport? America’s ‘national pastime’ as global field and international sport. Global Networks, 7(2), 187–201.
Keys, B. (2004). Spreading peace, democracy, and Coca-Cola: Sport and American cultural expression in the 1930’s. Diplomatic History, 28(2), 165–196.
Klein, A. M. (1995). Culture, politics, and baseball in the Dominican Republic. Latin American Perspectives, 22(3), 111–130.
Klein, A. M. (2001). Sport and culture as contested terrain: Americanization in the Caribbean. In A. Yiannakis & M. J. Melnick (Eds.), Contemporary issues in sociology of sport. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
Klein, A. M. (2006). Growing the game: The globalization of major league baseball. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Lakshmanan, I. A. R. (2004). Major strides made in Dominican. Last accessed on 2 April 2 2008 from http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2004/10/27/major_strides_made_in_dominican/?page=1.
Lawrence, S. M. (2004). An examination of the African American male athlete’s experience of race in sport. Sociology and Sports, 7 (1).
Lee, P.-C. & Lin, C.-Y. (2007). The global flows of international professional baseball system. The Sport Journal, 10(4).
Leeds, E. M., & Leeds, M. A. (2007). International soccer success and national institutions. International Association of Sports Economists. Last accessed on 2 April 2 2008 from https://ssl.tnr.com/p/docsub.mhtml?i=20060619&s=foer061906
Ley, D. (1985). Cultural/humanistic geography. Progress in Physical Geography, 9(3), 415–423.
Magnusson, G. K. (2001). The internationalization of sports: the case of Iceland. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 36(1), 59–69.
Maguire, J. (1999). Global sport: Identities, societies, civilizations. Cambridge: Polity, Press.
Maguire, J., & Stead, D. (1998). Border crossings: Soccer labor migration and the European Union. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 33(1), 59–73.
Marchman, T. (2007). MLB Wants China, but China may not want MLB. Last accessed on 2 April 2008 from http://www2.nysun.com/article/55564.
Mayeda, D. T. (1999). From model minority to economic threat: media portrayals of Major League Baseball pitchers Hideo Nomo and Hideki Irabu. Journal of Sport & Social Issues, 23(2), 203–217.
Miller, T., Lawrence, G., Mckay, J., & Rowe, D. (2001). Globalization and sport: Playing the world. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Ojala, C. F. & Gadwood, M. T. (1989). The geography of Major League Baseball player production 1876-1988. Sport Place, 3(3), 24–35.
Oleksak, M. M., & Oleksak, M. A. (1991). Beisbol: Latin Americans and the Grand Old Game. Dallas: Masters Press.
Perez, L. A. (1994). Between baseball and bullfighting: The quest for nationality in Cuba, 1868–1898. The Journal of American History, 81(2), 493–517.
Reaves, J. A. (2002). Taking in a game: A history of baseball in Asia. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press.
Rielly, E. J. (2003). Baseball and American culture: Across the diamond. Philadelphia: Haworth Press.
Riper, T. V. (2005). Major league baseball goes global. Forbes 12/20. Retrieved on 20 April 2008 from http://www.forbes.com/2005/12/20/baseball-gm-disney-cx_tvr_1220baseball.html.
Rosentraub, M. S. (2000). Governing sports in the global era: a political economy of Major League Baseball and its stakeholders. Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies, 8, 121–144.
Rowntree, L., Lewis, M., Price, M., & Wyckoff, W. (2009). Diversity and globalization: World regions, environment, development (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Seymour, H. (1990). Baseball: The people’s game. New York: Oxford University Press.
Sherlock, J. (1998). “Lean, Mean” and feeling “Powerful”: premature osteoporosis among young female athletes: experiences and feminist sociological analyses. Sociology and Sports, 1. Last accessed on 7 August 2010 from http://physed.otago.ac.nz/sosol/v1i2/v1i2a3.htm.
Siegfried, J., & Zimbalist, A. (2000). The economics of sports facilities and their communities. The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 14(3), 95–114.
Stauffer, Z. (2007). Ghana: baseball dreams. Last accessed on 2 April 2008 from www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/rough/2007/07/ghana_baseball.html.
Swiryn, J. (2008). The emergence of baseball in China: Part I. last accessed on 7 July 2009 from http://bleacherreport.com/articles/11388-the-emergence-of-baseball-in-china-part-i.
Vinokur, M. B. (1988). More than a game: Sports and politics. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Chen, K., Gunter, C. & Zhang, C. How global is U.S. Major League Baseball? A historical and geographic perspective. GeoJournal 77, 429–444 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-011-9406-x
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-011-9406-x