The Ethnicization Of Baseball

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Baseball has been America’s pastime since 1911, but it has undergone many significant changes in recent years. Baseball fans have always enjoyed watching their favourite hitter hit a home run and watching their favourite pitcher strike out a batter. Today, this satisfaction occurs much more often as the home run and strikeout totals for a season throughout the entire MLB are at an all-time high. As the game became more enjoyable, it gained popularity worldwide. Baseball as we know it today is an entirely different game than baseball fifty years ago.
Baseball has become a much more diverse sport over the last fifty years due to the rising popularity in Latin America and parts of Southeast Asia. In 1967, the MLB consisted of 75.6% Caucasian players, 13.6% African-American players, 10.7% Latino players, no Asian players, and 0.1% players of other ethnicities. Today, the MLB consists of 57.5% Caucasian players, 7.7% African-American players, 31.9% Latino players, 1.9% …show more content…

In 1967, there were only twenty teams in the MLB, but as baseball became more and more popular throughout Latin America and Asia, the MLB gradually expanded to thirty teams in two different countries.
Nothing is more exciting than hearing the pop of the bat as it makes contact with the ball and seeing it continue to rise, clearing the wall for a home run. The strength it takes to hit the ball over the wall is incredible. Power hitters, who can change the game with one swing of the bat, have been a major part in baseball for many years. Sluggers in the 1960s—such as Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Frank Robinson, Carl Yastrzemski, and Harmon Killebrew—are not much different when compared sluggers today, such as Mike Trout, Bryce Harper, Miguel Cabrera, Giancarlo Stanton, and Edwin Encarnacion.

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