Terry McMahon's Awesome Blog

So it turns out former Rangers and Mets manager Bobby Valentine is managing in Japan these days, claiming unparalleled wisdom as to the future of the game. Namely, he thinks it's time to move on the long-proposed true World Series. Congrats to the New York Post for tracking him down:

"There are going to be bigger and better things in baseball and I am going to be involved in it," Valentine said by phone. "We have to open eyes and minds and have vision. No one on this side of the pond or on that side of the pond has the vision or the desire to do what should be done. They are too lost in today.

"There should be a division of major league baseball in Asia with major league franchises and with world players, not just Asian players. This way you would have a common world draft. The infrastructure is already here. The stadiums, the TVs, the fans."

First off, the theory is that next year's spring-training Baseball World Cup (yes, they're doing serious competition about a week after pitchers start throwing, and yes, that will lead to crappy play and injuries) will provide the impetus to do some form of international major-league baseball. Due to time differences, it's not feasible for the Hong Kong Capitalists to play at home one day and then hop on over to visit the Mets the next.

So there are logistical hurdles to bringing Asia into the major-league fold, but that hasn't stopped anyone from tossing out solutions. My personal favorite is to include Asian teams in player contracts (i.e. include them in drafts, allow them to trade with North American teams, let them sign free agents, etc.), and have the North American champion play the Asian champ in some form of World Series. Other suggestions include an Asian division in each league to go along with East, Central and West, and give each team one long intercontinental road trip (air trip?) per year.

Still, there are a lot of questions as to whether Asian baseball would sustain a long-term business model. There's a flourishing Japanese major league that's increasingly sending over MLB stars. (Note that Japanese import Ichiro Suzuki last year broke the 80-year record for hits in a season.) Now let's see, Korea's also producing its share of ballplayers too, but it's unclear that any other Asian country would really want a major-league team. While that's not a huge problem (what do we care if all the teams are in Japan or Seoul, especially just to start), it raises the other big issue of Asian baseball viability. These Japanese teams may be able to compete with each other, but how many of them are going to be able to afford the mega-contracts that the Yankees, Angels and Red Sox can offer? And let's not forget the cultural issue: a lot of these guys, especially the American ballplayers, will demand extra money to sign with the Yomiuri Giants. Existing Asian teams may be able to afford this kind of talent, but with Bobby Valentine's top players being fellow Mets castoffs, frankly I doubt it.

I hope international baseball works: it's my favorite sport by a longshot and I want to see it flourish, especially if my suspicions are correct that its long-term American viability is in question too. So while I don't see a path yet for making this work, I hope there is one. It's good to see baseball guys like Bobby Valentine actively looking for a way to make it work.