Engaging U from GU-World Baseball Classic

The episode of Engaging U discusses global engagement in baseball, particularly through the World Baseball Classic tournament. The host shares personal experiences and interviews her father to understand the perception of American MLB fans towards the tournament. The World Baseball Classic is described as the largest international stage for baseball, but its viewership in the United States is relatively low compared to the World Series. The host emphasizes the importance of global engagement for the future of baseball, highlighting the impact of players like Yadier Molina and the need for Latin American players to represent their countries. The episode concludes by urging fans to become more globally engaged in the sport. Welcome to this episode of Engaging U from GU. My name is Sophie and today we'll be talking about global engagement through the lens of English 101 writing section 10. Let's get into it. We'll be focused on global engagement in baseball. Many of us know baseball as America's pastime, but this notion is ever-changing in the 21st century. The world baseball classic is changing baseball into a global pastime, not just America's pastime. My earliest memories are of my father and I watching MLB games, whether it was from the comfort of our living room or in the stands of Bush Stadium. I consider myself a die-hard St. Louis Cardinals fan. In early October 2011, I can remember eagerly listening over the intercom at school as a first-grade student, waiting to hear updates on the Cardinals' playoff run. That year, my team won their battle against the Texas Rangers and walked away with their 11th World Series title. David Freese of the Cardinals was the MVP of that year. In fact, he sat in the same classroom as I did, cheering on the same team only a couple decades before me. Growing up in St. Louis made it so baseball was an integral part of my community, which has led me to the passion I have for the sport today, and is why I am seeking to better understand how baseball is making an effort to be globally engaged in our ever-globalizing world. Since 2006, the World Baseball Classic Tournament has taken place five times. Despite the dedication and love for the sport that many MLB fans like myself share, the competition between countries displayed during the World Baseball Classic Tournament has not received the same amount of attention, particularly in the United States. The average baseball fan in the U.S., including myself, spends most of their time watching Major League Baseball, keeping up with the American side of the sport. It is no secret that the United States is a place which capitalizes off the athleticism of individuals, interns, sports, and big business. But what are American-centered sports like baseball doing to engage the rest of the world? After all, according to the MLB's official website, 28.5% of players are internationally born and 40% are people of color. I interviewed my father, a die-hard Los Angeles Dodgers fan, to more deeply understand how the average MLB fan in America feels about the World Baseball Classic Tournament, which is a clear effort to increase global engagement in all aspects of baseball. I am not able to have my father here in person with me today to conduct this interview. However, I did call him earlier and asked him the questions. So here's how it went. First off, I asked him, have you ever watched the World Baseball Classic Tournament? He answered, no, only clips, maybe an inning or two. I then asked him if he would rather the United States win the World Baseball Classic or his team, the Dodgers, win the World Series. He answered with, in quotes, Dodgers for sure. I asked my dad if he thinks that MLB players should value participation in the World Baseball Classic just as much as the MLB or if they should focus entirely on their major league careers. He responded that players should value both their participation in the MLB and their participation in the World Baseball Classic equally, especially given the fact that players are paid millions on millions of dollars for their membership on MLB teams and the World Baseball Classic is really only every four or five years. So participating in the tournament isn't really going to affect their careers by very much, which is all the reason that they should care about it. We're here at the important part. So what exactly is the World Baseball Classic? It is the largest international stage for baseball ever. In 2023, there was a record of 1,306,414 people in attendance for all the games in the tournament combined. The championship game between Japan and the United States took place at the Miami Marlins Lone Depot Park in Miami, Florida, and it was sold out. In Japan, which is historically one of the best baseball countries in the world, an astonishing 42% of households had the 2023 World Baseball Classic final game on their televisions, according to a Forbes article on the viewing of the 2023 tournament. While viewership in the United States has increased since previous years, it is still relatively low. As the championship game between Japan and the United States averaged only at 5.2 million viewers. To put this into perspective, the final game of the 2023 World Series had an average of 11.45 million viewers, according to an article by SportsProMedia. The World Series had double the viewership than the World Baseball Classic tournament in the United States, even though the 2023 World Series experienced historically low viewing rates. So this brings me to my final point. Why is the World Baseball Classic so important for baseball? How does it develop the game? And why should American-slash-MLB fans care? So global engagement through the World Baseball Classic is so important for the future of the MLB as it engages players and fans, as mentioned previously. For example, longtime catcher for the St. Louis Cardinals, Yadier Molina, uses the World Baseball Classic competition as a way for him to show his pride for his home, Puerto Rico. Players like Yadier are so engaged with the World Baseball Classic as he even stated that he would rather Puerto Rico win the World Baseball Classic than his MLB team win the World Series. It is especially important for Latin American players like Yadier Molina to be given a stage to represent their country, as these players have such an enormous positive impact on Major League Baseball. But they are pressured to come to the U.S. in hopes to receive pay that compensates them for their skill, which they cannot find in their home countries. Significant viewership increases around the world and individual stories of players like Yadier Molina are just two examples of why global engagement is so important to the future of baseball. I hope that after all of you fans click out of this podcast, you have a newfound intent to become more globally engaged fans of the great sport of baseball. Without international players and fans, the MLB would look nothing like it does today, so we must continue to engage the game of baseball that we love. Thank you. Thank you.