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Shaun Tardon of the Mail and Guardian of Johannesburg, South Africa thinks that baseball won't catch on worldwide.
He quotes G. Edward White who wrote the book Creating the national pastime : baseball transforms itself, 1903-1953 as one of his experts:
"I don't think it's merely a matter of pushing buttons and creating a market for baseball as with Starbucks," [said White]
In other parts of the story:
"Whenever I get into a taxi in Los Angeles or New York, I ask the cab driver if they like baseball and 90% of them say no," said Shigeyoshi Ino, a former Japanese baseball executive and professor of international relations.
"They say it is because baseball has no violence or the game is too long," he said.
That's how I do my polling. I ask cab drivers. How many cabs can you ride in Los Angeles anyway?
The guy doesn't even talk about South Africa's pitching ace, Carl Michaels, who isn't even famous enough to get an entry in The Baseball Cube.
"Baseball's woes -- and its globalisation of the opposite form -- can even be seen in the United States, where fresh stars are often more likely to come from Latin America and Asia."
Um, is he saying baseball is in trouble because Manny is Dominican?
(Sorry, easy joke. Couldn't help myself...)
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