Baseball Scores

Over the past few decades baseball has become a truly world wide sport with professional leagues popping up in all major cities and countries in the world. Gambling on baseball also has grown with the game itself making the American market even more valuable for punters than it ever has been before. With Major League baseball in America having so many affiliate teams through out the world it is easy to see why gamblers worldwide place close attention to international baseball associations. Places like Mexico and countries in the Caribbean have been producing some of the greatest ball players the game has ever seen and punters are beginning to see the advantage of following international baseball scores. The American past time has been spreading to other cultures and countries since the mid 1850? in the form of American ambassadors for the game and simply American workers working abroad bringing the game with them. It is widely believed that baseball came to Australia from American miners in the 1800?. Later many if not all of the countries that were exposed to the game formed leagues and baseball programs of there own even implementing in to the varsity and school levels. At one point at the turn of the century professional American teams were visiting Japan to play against their university teams, further promoting the game to the Japanese people. All of the sudden there were celebrity type players using their status to bring interest to the game abroad. This type of behavior throughout the years has been affecting gambling on the game greatly and has also created a much more stable market for baseball, further launching it into the world stage and the Olympics.

Olympic Baseball

Much of the reason why baseball has developed globally a little slower than other sports has been because of its on and off battle, so to speak, with the Olympic committees over the years. In 1904 baseball was introduced to the Olympics as a demonstration sport it was not an official medal event. Almost 90 years later, in 1992 for the Barcelona Olympics baseball was finally included as an official medal sport. After 1992 baseball seemed as though it would finally be recognized on the world stage at the summer Olympics for good, allowing for countries to feel as though it was important to fund and organize baseball programs locally. Unfortunately after a few good years and 17 different countries competing in total the whole sport seemed to come to a crashing halt. Since 1936 when polo was voted out of being an Olympic sport no other event has ever been voted against until now. In 2008 baseball and softball were voted out of the 2012 Summer Olympics in the U.K. Although this event really doesn’t have much negative affect on Major League Baseball in the States it does affect baseball internationally quite a lot. Like mentioned earlier countries feel as though they are somewhat responsible for their Olympic athletes and having baseball removed from the Olympics really doesn’t help local baseball at all if anything it hurts it. Now the governments won’t put as much funding into the infrastructure of the sport whether it be in youth leagues, park maintenance, school based leagues, and professional league marketing to bring the people to the games. This is also true of the fans of the game. Like I said earlier the U.S fan base doesn’t really get affected that much but in international markets people are more likely to want to watch baseball if it recognized as an Olympic sport. It also more likely those celebrity type players will pop up in foreign markets further promoting the game. Aussie punters are especially affected because it can be hard to stay motivated about baseball scores and a sport that is not recognized by the Olympics.

Australian Olympic Baseball

Australian baseball generally didn’t really catch on until the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. There they placed seventh out of eight teams but none the less the sport was on the world stage and even more importantly right in there own back yard. A few years later in Atlanta again they placed seventh. It wasn’t until 2004 in Athens, Greece where the Australian National team made some serious headway both as a medal contender and in making baseball an important sport for young players and punters alike. Baseball scores were hardly paid attention to locally in Australia until they the Australians brought and Olympic medal home for baseball. After narrowly defeating an all pro Japanese team for the silver medal the Australians already ecstatic with there accomplishment went on to face the dominating Cubans for the gold medal. Unfortunately they were edged out buy the mighty Cubans 2 ? 6 for the gold medal. Nonetheless a star was born and the seed was planted for baseball in Australia. Australian punters paid close attention in the years following the win to both MLB baseball and the international exports Australia was producing at the pro level. All of the sudden baseball scores became more and more important.

Conclusion

With the omission of baseball at the 2012 Olympics many believe that baseball in Australia will start to go back in the wrong direction. However many also feel that baseball has already made its mark on Australian society and that baseball not being included doesn’t help or hurt Australia any more than any other country.