Expansionist Tendencies

Dave Paisley

After a couple of weeks in England and a subsequent major sinus infection, it?s great to be back writing about baseball. It?s almost a month since I was able to catch any baseball news, so it was quite surprising to come back and find that, well, nothing much had happened. Even the Hall of Fame voting was somewhat subdued, given the relative predictability of the results.

I must say I was overjoyed to see Gary Carter make it into the Hall this time around. Having left England for Montreal in 1982, I walked right into a city and baseball team that was just about to peak for the first time in its history. The nucleus of Carter, Andre Dawson and Tim Raines was just about to jell, and the team was also coming off a pseudo-playoff appearance in the strike-marred 1981 season. Carter was the relatively well established star, Dawson was just settling in and Raines was still somewhat embroiled in the midst of a small cocaine scandal, as well as finally being transitioned away from second base to the outfield.

While there may be a small debate about which cap Carter should wear into the Hall, I don?t think there?s much doubt that it should be that of the Expos. He spent ten full seasons in Montreal, had his best years there and made his name there. In his five years with the Mets, he was only the first string catcher for four years, and only his first season there (1985) was on a par with his best career seasons. Some might say, ?But he won a World Series there!? And sure, he did. But it?s a World Series for which the Red Sox are more famous for losing than the Mets are for winning.

So I hope whoever?s in charge of this at the Hall takes note and does the right thing. Carter will probably be the first and last Expo to be inducted, and it will be at least a minor consolation in the otherwise sorry history of the franchise.

Having spent a couple of weeks in England over the holiday break, I found it instructive to see how the spread of Americanism has fared in England the last few years. I thought this was worth a quick look in light of the world expansionist policies of Major League Baseball.

Since leaving in 1982, England has been swept by a steady tide of US influence, starting with the infiltration of Budweiser into pubs in the mid-eighties. I remember a trip back in 1985 when I was driving along a highway feeling something was wrong. I couldn?t quite put my finger on it when it suddenly dawned on me that I was following a Budweiser lorry (sorry, truck.) In 1982, nobody in England knew what Budweiser was, but within a couple of years, there were Budweiser trucks littering the highways (and the pubs.)

Once the beer market was infiltrated, what was the next logical step? Why, sports, of course. The late eighties and early nineties saw a big push by the NFL to turn Europe on to American Football. They sent over goodwill ambassadors like Dan Marino to attend camps for would-be players and helped start grass-roots leagues. It took a while, but by 1997 (my last extended visit), the NFL was all the rage in England. NFL games were being televised on Sky, the main satellite system and the European league was ramping up after a faltering start in the early nineties.

Now, five years on, American Football, and indeed American sports are nowhere to be seen. It took me ten minutes of fumbling around with the teletext to find NFL game scores from the last week of the regular season. I guess it was impressive that the scores were available at all, but there was nary a mention of these all-important end of season games over the air.

And while December is the most exciting time of the NFL season, it couldn?t compete with the English cricket team playing half way round the world in Australia. And not only is the cricket action 12 hours out of phase, the English team is absolutely pathetic this year, being steamrollered game after game by the mighty Australians. When games take five days to complete, there?s plenty of opportunity to savor the humiliation. Yet the English would rather continue to follow the ups and downs, well, maybe just downs, of their woeful national cricket team rather than turn to American sports.

So the NFL?s time in England has come and gone, and baseball?s time in England never was and probably never will be. There is one other factor that weighs against American sports being widely accepted in England. For Americans, sport has to be live to be enjoyed. They don?t want half a game of highlights long after the game has finished. (Note that Sportscenter doesn?t count as just highlights ? it?s entertainment in its own right.). Americans demand that full three and a half hour football game, complete with mind-numbing commercial timeouts, referee calls and bad call challenges. They want those three and a half hour baseball games with their regular bathroom breaks every half inning.

The Brits, on the other hand, rarely get to see complete live games of anything. The soccer Premier League is covered primarily by edited highlights. Saturday night features 25 minutes of the feature game, 15 minutes of another game, ten minutes of another, then all the goals from the remaining games. All the action you could want to see in an hour. There?s none of that boring midfield punting about. Sunday afternoon usually features a live game, but it?s on a premium satellite channel, so relatively few people see it or are that bothered. In fact just recently, the European Government sued the Premier League for not making more games available for live broadcast. Color me stunned on that one ? European bureaucrats promoting free trade? Whatever will they think of next?

No, it seems like MLB?s best bet is to keep expanding East and South, although it seems highly unlikely that Brazil and Argentina will ever convert to baseball. Perhaps for them and the English the stands at a baseball game just aren?t violent enough?

about the author

Ever think that Bud Selig looks a bit like Dr. Evil? Well, moreso than Kevin Spacey, anyway. Think about it, then tell Dave Paisley that Bud isn't out to conquer the world at drdjp@strikethree.com. But he won't believe you.