Cricket Discussion and Latino Baseball Players

This entry will briefly address issues talked about in the previous 2 classes: history and game play of Cricket, as well as Baseball's exploitation of Latino players.
Cricket is one of the sports that I know very little about, therefore, it was a bit overwhelming when Dr. Spencer was explaining the game play in class.  It makes me realize how hard it probably is for Wiebe (or any international visitor) to understand the game of football, with which we may think is pretty simplistic.  I thought it was very shocking to hear the Cooperstown-Doubleday Myth, which says that in the 1800's a man named Abner Doubleday created the game of baseball in Cooperstown, New York.  However, like cricket, baseball was created in England and brought over to the states.  Albert Spalding created this myth so that the U.S. could take credit for creating a major unique sport, since they had yet to do so.  Therefore, baseball became so popular because it gave Americans a sense of nationalism and pride, thinking that it was an original American sport.  I found it quite interesting that an individual would make up such a myth to that extent, and have it be believed for such a long time before historians proved it wrong!

Although, I did not attend last class, I addressed the powerpoints and had no idea that so many Latino players were given a chance at baseball in America.  My stance on this issue is both ways.  Although Latino players are given exponentially less money than American players at the time of signing, Latino's are benefitting in other ways.  They are given a slightly higher quality of living in the U.S. and are taken out of the poverty that they dealt with in Latin American countries.  However, on the flip side, I don't think it is fair that an amateur Latino baseball player with just as much skill as an American born player and puts in as much initial hard work gets paid significantly less just because of where/how they grew up.  Overall, the article/discussion opened up my eyes to an issue that I didn't know existed.  I am surprised at the amount of players that the MLB takes risks on, even though it is not a substantial amount of money (it all adds up quickly).  However, the MLB makes up for the losses by the financial success of superstars, such as Miguel Tejada who was initially acquired for a mere $2,000.