Friday, March 09, 2007
The Dragon & The Phanatic...
ESPN.com is running a series of articles on baseball in the Far East that I thought was interesting. Of particular interest to me was an article by Jim Caple about baseball in China where Caple speculates that the Olympics might spur China to be the next great superpower of baseball development.
Former Big Leaguer and Manager Jim Lefebvre is the Chinese team’s manager and might be a valuable conduit for major league talent wanting to leave China to compete in the MLB. The problem is that Lefebvre played for the Dodgers for eight years in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, and managed the Mariners, Cubs and Brewers. Having Lefebvre coaching the Chinese team will likely hand those teams – save maybe the Brewers, whose association with Lefebvre was brief – an advantage in securing Chinese talent. The Dodgers and Mariners are West Coast teams with large Asian-American, and more specifically, Chinese-American, immigrant populations. The Cubs are an iconic team from the third-largest city in America, the capitol of Midwestern America, the team that plays with WGN beaming its signal across America. These are the teams that I expect to benefit from this pipeline flowing from the Far East to the West.
China is rising in the world community and might end up dominating the new century. James Fallows of The Atlantic Monthly – just about the only thing I read when I am not busy reading about baseball – has been writing an interesting series of articles for the magazine with respect to China in the New Century. “Postcards From Tomorrow Square” is an interesting article from Fallows looking at the pitfalls of Chinese society and its development. For people interested in reading a little about about China’s development as a world power, check out Fallows article.
A little off-topic … I was stunned by this article I came across in National Geographic about Zheng He, the Chinese Admiral who led a series of seven naval expeditions to India and Africa in the early 1400’s, nearly a century before Christopher Columbus sailed into the Caribbean. Zheng He sailed dozens of massive treasure ships that were four or five times as long as Columbus’ ships and weighed many more tons across the distant sea. China’s efforts to explore Africa and India dwarfed Spain’s expeditions to America. Had the Chinese continued to explore the Indian Ocean and advanced into the Atlantic, the history of the world might have been radically different. Instead, the Chinese withdrew and tried to close their borders, an effort that left their society stagnated culturally and economically well into the modern era.
What is frustrating, reading Caple’s article on China, Jim Allen’s on the development of the game in the Far East, and all of the others ESPN wrote about Far Eastern baseball, is how utterly removed from this talent pool teams like the Phillies were. There is a vast, vast reservoir of talent out there and the Phillies seem uninterested in developing it. The globally-minded Dodgers seem to grasp the idea that there is money and talent out there. The ambitious Yankees and Red Sox are East Coast teams and they grasp the concept of globalizing their reach and expanding into the Far East. I am amazed that Pat Gillick, who was the GM of the Mariners during the days of Ichiro! Hasn’t moved to correct this deficiency.
The articles from ESPN.com about China can be found here.
Okay, here is what is going to happen on A Citizens Blog in the coming days. Next week I am posting my 2007 predictions for the A.L. (March 12) and the N.L. (March 14 or 16), as well as a post on the Florida Marlins. The week after that (March 19), I am posting a one-part Season Preview for the Phillies. After that I have some projects on the backburner that I want to get to.
Have a nice weekend, everyone!
(2) comments
Former Big Leaguer and Manager Jim Lefebvre is the Chinese team’s manager and might be a valuable conduit for major league talent wanting to leave China to compete in the MLB. The problem is that Lefebvre played for the Dodgers for eight years in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, and managed the Mariners, Cubs and Brewers. Having Lefebvre coaching the Chinese team will likely hand those teams – save maybe the Brewers, whose association with Lefebvre was brief – an advantage in securing Chinese talent. The Dodgers and Mariners are West Coast teams with large Asian-American, and more specifically, Chinese-American, immigrant populations. The Cubs are an iconic team from the third-largest city in America, the capitol of Midwestern America, the team that plays with WGN beaming its signal across America. These are the teams that I expect to benefit from this pipeline flowing from the Far East to the West.
China is rising in the world community and might end up dominating the new century. James Fallows of The Atlantic Monthly – just about the only thing I read when I am not busy reading about baseball – has been writing an interesting series of articles for the magazine with respect to China in the New Century. “Postcards From Tomorrow Square” is an interesting article from Fallows looking at the pitfalls of Chinese society and its development. For people interested in reading a little about about China’s development as a world power, check out Fallows article.
A little off-topic … I was stunned by this article I came across in National Geographic about Zheng He, the Chinese Admiral who led a series of seven naval expeditions to India and Africa in the early 1400’s, nearly a century before Christopher Columbus sailed into the Caribbean. Zheng He sailed dozens of massive treasure ships that were four or five times as long as Columbus’ ships and weighed many more tons across the distant sea. China’s efforts to explore Africa and India dwarfed Spain’s expeditions to America. Had the Chinese continued to explore the Indian Ocean and advanced into the Atlantic, the history of the world might have been radically different. Instead, the Chinese withdrew and tried to close their borders, an effort that left their society stagnated culturally and economically well into the modern era.
What is frustrating, reading Caple’s article on China, Jim Allen’s on the development of the game in the Far East, and all of the others ESPN wrote about Far Eastern baseball, is how utterly removed from this talent pool teams like the Phillies were. There is a vast, vast reservoir of talent out there and the Phillies seem uninterested in developing it. The globally-minded Dodgers seem to grasp the idea that there is money and talent out there. The ambitious Yankees and Red Sox are East Coast teams and they grasp the concept of globalizing their reach and expanding into the Far East. I am amazed that Pat Gillick, who was the GM of the Mariners during the days of Ichiro! Hasn’t moved to correct this deficiency.
The articles from ESPN.com about China can be found here.
Okay, here is what is going to happen on A Citizens Blog in the coming days. Next week I am posting my 2007 predictions for the A.L. (March 12) and the N.L. (March 14 or 16), as well as a post on the Florida Marlins. The week after that (March 19), I am posting a one-part Season Preview for the Phillies. After that I have some projects on the backburner that I want to get to.
Have a nice weekend, everyone!
Labels: China
