39 ways to balk

[Warren Willson]

Originally posted by His High Holiness
...[snip]...

"I know the Aussie on the Mariners claims that there are several more back home as good as many ML players."

If this is true, then Aussies must have a special brand of altruism not found anywhere else in the human race. Here is this Utopian country where ballplayers routinely pass up million dollar contracts all for the love of the game and country. Furthermore, jingoistic American owners routinely pass them by in favor of inferior American talent.

I can't buy any of that. If there was untapped talent in Australia of even AA quality, American owners would be dangling hundreds of thousands of dollars in signing bonuses in front of their faces. And just like players from Mexico, Venuzuela, the Dominican Republic, etc, the Aussie boys would sign on the dotted line and fly to America.

Unless of course, their brains are wired differently from the rest of the human race. If that is the case, then Australia is so different from America that Warren's musings on umpiring are irrelevant to the American game.

Peter

...the conclusion-jumping Gold Medal is going to Washington DC, and your dresser drawer, no doubt about it! *HUGE grin*

First of all, many of our players are overlooked by your scouts because they are NOT PITCHERS. Why offer a big contract to an Australian kid to travel halfway around the world and play in a position that you can get an American, Mexican of Venezualan kid to play almost as well - maybe even at half the price? And if our positional players just aren't getting those big sign-up offers, how will the owners ever know what they're capable of achieving through contact with the pressure-cooker US farm system?

Our brains don't have to be "wired differently" for us to have a different focus in life. It is way easier to attract someone from the backblocks of a city in the Dominican Republic with the promise of sporting riches than it is to attract an Australian kid from the beaches of Sydney who really can live and enjoy life, even without the siren call of Major League baseball.

It isn't altruism, Peter. It's pragmatism. The US farm system demands the very best and most productive years of any young man's life. If it doesn't almost guarantee more in return than can be achieved by staying at home and choosing a business career instead, why would anyone give up the gorgeous women, the pristine beaches, the brilliant climate, the world's best beer and a whole host of other attractions to travel halfway around the world and live life like a povety-striken nomad for 6 months of every year over 5 or more years in the Minors?

You are still thinking like an American kid who grew up with baseball as the national pastime and baseball players as his national heros and idols. You are still thinking like someone for whom money and prestige remain the major motivators, as you've mentioned several times before. You need to think like an Australian kid who just loves the game for itself rather than for its potential power and prestige, and who has much more to give up in order to achieve success than any poor kid from Puerto Rico or the Dominican Republic.

Cheers