When Will There be a Real World Series?

• Published in: Sport in society 2007-11, Vol.10 (6), p.979-1013
• Main Author: Klein, Alan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Professional Sports; Transnationalism; United States of America
• ISSN: 1743-0437; 1743-0445
• DOI: 10.1080/17430430701550454

So much has been made of sports becoming global, that one would think the concept was well conceived and documented; but little of the sort exists. Sport globalization has been examined from a distance, and through a heavy, if not exclusive, reliance upon secondary sources. This marks a serious weakness in the literature on sport globalization. My work represents a seven year odyssey through seven countries that play baseball at one level or another; all in an attempt to document the concept of globalization through one sport industry. Three entities from Major League Baseball were selected for study. They were selected to represent different structural relations between the sport and international development. The first entity studied was Major League Baseball's Commissioner's Office, particularly its international division: Major League Baseball International. A large market team, as well as a small market franchise, were also studied. Housed in the nation's second largest market, the Los Angeles Dodgers were a natural choice; but there were more compelling reasons to look at them. They pioneered international baseball, and remain one of the most adventurous clubs in that regard. The Kansas City Royals, by contrast, inhabit a small market city tucked deep in America's heartland. They are fiscally conservative, as well as socially parochial--not a team that one would consider to be doing much internationally. This, however, is not the case. They have ventured into uncharted baseball territory, and represent a cutting edge organization. The differences between large and small market franchises are shown to impact the way they go about globalizing.