C.J. Helweg

Mr. Robbins

English 1310

11/27/2007

Word Count: 1002

The Distribution of Sport

Technology has allowed information to be transferred faster than ever thought possible. Information is not the only thing being transferred at a rapid rate though. Clothing, food, electronics, automobiles, entertainment and fashion are crossing international borders as soon as they become available. One of the most influential things to be crossing borders is sports. Sports have made the jump from country to country with very little resistance and vast acceptance by the population. It is a universal language that everyone in the world can understand. The languages may not be the same, but the feelings of passion and support are mutual in all nations. Baseball, soccer, and golf can be found in nearly every country in the world.

The exact date of origin is unknown, but the sport of baseball was organized in the late 1800’s (Early Baseball Law). Since this time, baseball has attracted many athletes from different countries and has become established in many countries as well. Baseball is most popular in the Caribbean region, Asia and the United States. Players from these countries come to the United States to participate in the MLB, Major League Baseball. The Dominican Republic has the most non-U.S. players on the roster with ninety-eight, followed by Venezuela with fifty-one, Puerto Rico with twenty-eight, Canada with nineteen, Japan and Mexico had 13 each, Panama with seven, Cuba with six, South Korea with 3, Colombia and Taiwan two each, and Aruba, Australia, Curacao and Nicaragua each have one. This equals about twenty-nine percent of the all MLB rosters including inactive lists and disabled lists, which is a record high for the MLB (National Pastime). While the MLB in America is the most popular in the world, there is an international league called the World Baseball League. The league was established in 2005 and contains sixteen teams from around the world that include Australia, Canada, China, Chinese Taipei, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Italy, Netherlands, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico, South Africa, United States, and Venezuela (World Baseball Classic). It’s not only the adult players that are making world travels and playing different countries. The Little League World Series has exploded in popularity in the past few years. The first World Series was played in 1947, and since then 21 countries have joined the rush for the little league World Series trophy. When the Little League World Series started to be broadcasted on ESPN and ESPN2, the world started to get more interested and supportive of the little leaguers.

Soccer is the most popular sport in the world. It’s very simple to play, which makes it so popular among the masses. All you need is a round ball. Anybody can kick a ball,which makes it nearly available to everyone. There are many leagues in which soccer athletes participate in. The World Cup League involves thirty-two national teams competing for the world cup of soccer (World Cup). The Premier League in England has twenty teams (England). There are twenty-eight teams in the Champions League (UEFA). The popularity of soccer is growing in the United States.

“The growth represents a nice increase in total, but it's not huge on a compound-growth basis. Frequent players (40+ times a year) grew from 3 million to 5.3 million during the period. But it remains a youth sport. Participants aged 7 to 11 went from 44.2 percent of total participation to 36.3 percent. Participants aged 12 to 17 fell from 29.8 percent to 26.7 percent. That translates to 63 percent of all participants being under age 18” (Carr).

Cities are building new, major league soccer stadiums in the United States because the popularity of the sport is continuing to grow. The United States also has a professional soccer league, the MLS. The league had an eastern and western conference and includes the Houston Dynamo, Chivas USA, the Colorado Rapids, FC Dallas, Los Angeles Galaxy, and Real Salt Lake in the Western Conference. The MLS Eastern Conference includes the Chicago Fire, Columbus Crew, D.C. United, Kansas City Wizards, New England Revolution, Toronto FC, and New York Red Bulls.

Golf has been around for thousands of years. "It is known that golf was played at St. Andrews before the founding of the university there in 1403, and there is sufficient evidence that it was being played in one form or another in Scotland as much as a century before that, about 1300" (History of Golf). Since these early beginnings, golf has expanded to include a number of tours which go around the world. The tours included are the PGA, LPGA, European, Champions, Nationwide, PGA of America Canadian and the USGA. There are over 110 courses that are included on these tours that are from around the world. Golf is not an exclusively English sport. There are players from around the world that are changing the traditional stereotypes of golfers. Three of the six top players in the world are American. The other three are from vastly different parts of the world. The exceptions include Vijay Singh from the Fiji Islands, K.J. Choi from South Korea, and Rory Sabbatini from South Africa (Tour Statistics). Driving ranges and new courses are popping up all over the world, making golf a fast growing sport that nearly everyone can play with little athletic ability. The relaxation of golf makes it more appealing to a larger part of the world population. Beautiful courses with friends make golf an enjoyable experience.

Sports are only one example of the way the world is coming together. Sports are something that can bring an entire nation together to cheer for a common goal. Everywhere you go there will be someone to talk about sports. Sports are a universal language that everyone can understand no matter what part of the world a person is from. Different sports have come from different parts of the world and are shared by everyone. They have been shared and swapped throughout the generations by people who love to share their ideas and customs. The thought of “Americanization” of sports is absurd and obsolete.

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