Thursday, April 1, 2010

Baseball going global with China broadcast


Google (excuse me, Topeka!) may pulling back from China, but Major League Baseball is heading in full steam ahead. MLB announced it would broadcast the opening night game between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox for the first time in China. The 2010 All-Star game and World Series will also be broadcast so baseball fans in China will have plenty of opportunities to cheer for the Yankees. =)

Of course, MLB does not have to deal with the issues that troubled Google such as censorship and cyberattacks. But I think it's great that baseball is really branching out into China. The sport is hugely popular in other Asian countries, including Japan and Korea, so China was the next logical step. The game will be available to almost 300 million people in China, potentially creating a vast new group of fans.

Bud Selig is doing a great job expanding baseball's popularity abroad, including through the World Baseball Classic, as it fights for attention with other sports at home. As much negative attention as he gets for steroids and other problems in the game, he deserves credit for the good things that happen and this is a smart move for MLB. Baseball is truly going global.

Thanks to Major League Baseball via Wikipedia for the photo.

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