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Baseball United League (India/Pakistan/UAE)


Quin
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26 minutes ago, Quin said:

Well, this will be a fun follow.

Former Sox farmhand Karan Patel was taken 1-1 for the Mumbai Cobras:

Andre Rienzo got drafted:

Courtney Hawkins:

ADA:

Then a slew of former major leaguers:

Not in the above: 

 

Are any of these guys (esp some of the older bigger name guys) even gonna play in that league?

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19 minutes ago, chw42 said:

Are any of these guys (esp some of the older bigger name guys) even gonna play in that league?

There were video clips of some of them holding jerseys, so they'll probably make at least token appearances. 

I'm ready for the Courtney Hawkins blast off of a 50-year-old roided up Bartolo Colon.

He then strikes out every other single at-bat.

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This is fascinating and a little scary. At the moment, it seems like a joke, "drafting" nobodies and aged stars. How about next year when they start giving 10 million dollar bonuses to international prospects or high schoolers? I tend to think there isn't a market for baseball there like there is for soccer, golf or even basketball; but it would be pretty easy for them to throw a wrench in the MLB considering how exploitative our minor league system is, much more so relative to the NBA where the best guys are salaried employees making millions immediately. It saddens me because I keep thinking a sport like baseball could be nationalized and the profit motive could be taken away because baseball players don't really have many other options, but arab princelings have realized that oil money is a facade and tourism and sport is the new facade to "grow" their economy. it won't work, but sports will suffer in the mean time as well as any other (male only) cultural endeavor they want to get into.

Edited by nrockway
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1 hour ago, nrockway said:

This is fascinating and a little scary. At the moment, it seems like a joke, "drafting" nobodies and aged stars. How about next year when they start giving 10 million dollar bonuses to international prospects or high schoolers? I tend to think there isn't a market for baseball there like there is for soccer, golf or even basketball; but it would be pretty easy for them to throw a wrench in the MLB considering how exploitative our minor league system is, much more so relative to the NBA where the best guys are salaried employees making millions immediately. It saddens me because I keep thinking a sport like baseball could be nationalized and the profit motive could be taken away because baseball players don't really have many other options, but arab princelings have realized that oil money is a facade and tourism and sport is the new facade to "grow" their economy. it won't work, but sports will suffer in the mean time as well as any other (male only) cultural endeavor they want to get into.

I support any and all efforts to break the anti-trust scam baseball currently holds here, and open professional baseball leagues to maximize player exposure and options. Would love to see an actual World Series one day, and not this wild card bullshit served here to grab extra playoff TV dollars.

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14 hours ago, nrockway said:

This is fascinating and a little scary. At the moment, it seems like a joke, "drafting" nobodies and aged stars. How about next year when they start giving 10 million dollar bonuses to international prospects or high schoolers? I tend to think there isn't a market for baseball there like there is for soccer, golf or even basketball; but it would be pretty easy for them to throw a wrench in the MLB considering how exploitative our minor league system is, much more so relative to the NBA where the best guys are salaried employees making millions immediately. It saddens me because I keep thinking a sport like baseball could be nationalized and the profit motive could be taken away because baseball players don't really have many other options, but arab princelings have realized that oil money is a facade and tourism and sport is the new facade to "grow" their economy. it won't work, but sports will suffer in the mean time as well as any other (male only) cultural endeavor they want to get into.

I wouldn't worry about this until/if Saudi Arabia gets involved.

A former Sox farmhand was the 1-1 pick after maxing out at AA (really Winston-Salem), no doubt in part due to his Indian ancestry.

Courtney Hawkins was obliterating Indy Ball. The NBP humbled him. I doubt this league gets big, young talent for a long time.

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On 10/24/2023 at 9:00 AM, Quin said:

I wouldn't worry about this until/if Saudi Arabia gets involved.

A former Sox farmhand was the 1-1 pick after maxing out at AA (really Winston-Salem), no doubt in part due to his Indian ancestry.

Courtney Hawkins was obliterating Indy Ball. The NBP humbled him. I doubt this league gets big, young talent for a long time.

I tend to think if it there's some evidence that cricket fans will actually enjoy baseball and pay to watch it (why wouldn't they), why wouldn't MBS's sports driven economy extend to something "disruptive" and "innovative" like baseball? Maybe it's America's pastime, but it's a fun sport that anyone could like. And cricket is arguably South Asia's pastime despite colonialism... maybe baseball has a better reputation because it wasn't created by the British? There's some evidence to suggest that colonized countries appreciate American ideas because we weren't their conquerors, for right or for wrong.

 

On 10/23/2023 at 7:06 PM, South Side Hit Men said:

I support any and all efforts to break the anti-trust scam baseball currently holds here, and open professional baseball leagues to maximize player exposure and options. Would love to see an actual World Series one day, and not this wild card bullshit served here to grab extra playoff TV dollars.

I agree, but personally I don't like the idea of paying 16-year-olds $5million on the expectation that "investing" in a child will pay dividends one day for an American corporation. I don't like the idea of getting into bidding wars with countries over prospects with even worse labor standards than us, I'd like for the sport to be publicly owned personally, but maybe this is proof that that's not possible unless you're relying on an entirely domestic player base. That saddens me. Maybe that only exists in the NFL. Frankly, I see no reason why a public good like sports should be profit-oriented, except that there might be competition with leagues that will make it profit-oriented. What a world.

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