Baseball, ni hao

Baseball meet China. China meet baseball.

Major League Baseball International announced Wednesday beginning this fall, Chinese school children in 5 cities will be educated on the fundamentals of baseball as part of their physical education curriculum.

"The Major League Baseball International Play Ball! Program will put bats and balls into the hands of hundreds of thousands of young players in China in the coming years," said Paul Archey, Senior Vice President, International Business Operations, Major League Baseball. "We are committed to baseball's future in China and the Play Ball! Program promises to play an important role in China's emergence as a baseball-playing nation."

The move is a great step at building baseball relationships with the Chinese. Basketball has Yao Ming, why can't baseball have someone similar? Major League rosters show how much baseball has become an international game. There are Latin American players, Japanese players, Italian players, even Canadian baseball players. China, with its 1.3 billion people should have some good ballplayers turning up in the near future.

I only have one complaint.

Why can't Major League Baseball do the same thing in the United States?

This is supposed to be America's favorite pastime and yet there's a melting pot of cultures, which isn't a bad thing but the game is falling in the eyes of our own country. Television ratings for baseball drop further and further unless one of the teams is the New York Yankees or the Boston Red Sox. Even though there's record attendance, it's known the new ballparks with their new amenities provide some of the newcomers to the park.

So why is it baseball can't reach out to the millions of kids in America? There's kids at the park playing basketball or football, but you rarely see people playing baseball. When did it become such a rarity and why?

Maybe it's because it's easier to become a professional in other sports. Lebron was drafted into the NBA at 18 and made an immediate impact. College football players only need to finish two years of college to enter the draft. Baseball players? Unless they're on the fast track they could spend years in the minor leagues. An initial 7 year contract to play in the minor leagues just doesn't have as much luster and shine to it as a chance to play pro basketball or football right away.
So how does MLB reach out to America's youth to get them to play the game their fathers and grandfathers loved?

Now there's the million dollar question.