Should MLB Start Baseball Academies in India?

by thebaddancingraysfan on Nov 25, 2008 5:51 AM EST Comment 10 comments

With the recent signing of two Indian pitchers to the Pittsburg Pirates I must pose the question: Should the MLB have baseball academies in India.

I believe that developing academies in India would be a great idea Why? An academy would potentially open a market of baseball lovers in the world. The country already play cricket so, it would be an easy transition in term of skill.

On the other side though I could see how some would not want an American baseball academy and claim that such an academy would ruin the Indian "culture." I respect that argument but disagree.

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? What do you think?

Poll

Should MLB look into building baseball academies in India?

Yes

31 votes

No

7 votes

I could care less either way.

6 votes

44 votes | Poll has closed

0 recs | Comment 10 comments

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Comments

Absolutely

I’ve been saying this for years now. It makes too much sense not to happen:

- Mechanics of baseball are similar to mechanics of cricket, so there aren’t issues like teaching kids how to throw overhand or how to swing a bat at fast objects
- Gigantic untapped market; not sports-crazy generally, but they love cricket, and it’s only a hop skip and a jump away from cricket
- Half the country speaks English already
- Low risk, high reward generally
- With over a billion people, even if it never catches on there, scouts still should be able to find kids with enough talent to translate over
- Country with lots of impoverished people (and thus people generally would be willing to sign for relatively cheap)

Vogt early, Vogt often.

by Brickhaus on Nov 25, 2008 9:44 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

They're really not that similar

by Graham on Nov 25, 2008 11:05 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

The sports aren't that similar

But the physical mechanics of what a player needs to do are similar. Same toolset required for both sports.

Vogt early, Vogt often.

by Brickhaus on Nov 25, 2008 12:47 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Trust me, I've played both a significant amount

It’s almost impossible to go from pitching/hitting in baseball to bowling/batting in cricket. The mechanics of bowling are radically different and the mindset for hitting is a massive change.

by Graham on Nov 25, 2008 12:54 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

i've never played cricket, but, i'd imagine having good hand-eye coordination can't hurt. no?

by walkoffwalk on Nov 25, 2008 4:16 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Sure, but watch cricket players try to play baseball or baseball players try to play cricket.

You don’t hit the same way in cricket – it’s all about footwork and learning specific strokes. Making contact is relatively easy compared to virtually impossible against a good baseball pitcher.

As for bowling, they’re completely different mechanical motions. Bowling is (much) closer to serving in tennis than it is to pitching

by Graham on Nov 25, 2008 4:57 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Look,

if you’re saying the sports aren’t the same, of course they aren’t, thanks for the insight!

That doesn’t mean the players aren’t athletes. Coordination and training does translate between sports.

Are there a billion people there who could suddenly be interested in baseball and playing/paying for it? Yes. And if people in the dominican republic spoke english, that’s where the call centers would be outsourced to. This is the same exact thing: Outsourcing, looking for new markets and new sources of players.

Space.

It's a problem we face.

So we never go anywhere.

We just stay in one place.

by hazel on Nov 30, 2008 12:23 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs