US Baseball League Invests in Brazil

04/06/2015 - 10h05

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GUILHERME SETO

FROM SÃO PAULO

Increasingly, Brazilians have been interested in American sports. In conversation circles, soccer has, for some time, given way to basketball and football in the US. In addition to these sports, baseball has also earned its place.

Major League Baseball (MLB), the largest American sports league, is aware of the increased interest and has contributed throughout the process.

Since 2010, MLB has invested progressively higher values in Brazil, promoting outreach activities for the sport, prospecting young players to train in US clubs and hiring promising athletes for its leagues.

"Based on the available resources, we invest in markets that seem most interesting and profitable in the future. Brazil has become a focus of attention due to the economic boom it has gone through and its interest in American sports," said Caleb Santos-Silva, MLB's international development coordinator, in an interview with Folha.

For Santos-Silva and Mickey Shupin, a specialist in sports development, the biggest difficulty in promoting baseball outside of the US is the difficulty to buy equipment. Therefore, MLB has helped social projects and amateur teams with donations of complete sets of uniforms, bats, balls, protective equipment and bases.

In addition, MLB has annually sponsored so-called "elite camps," which consist of 10 days of training with league professionals (players, former athletes and coaches) directed at young people between the ages of 14 and 18. This year, between the months of January and February, 50 were selected to participate.

Translated by JILL LANGLOIS

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