Baseball is a pretty complicated sport but it has still been loved by America since it was created. Baseball is widely known as America’s favorite pastime and it is loved by many people all over the world, especially around the Caribbean, Central America and North America. In recent years the game has increased in popularity in Asia and it's been getting more attention in countries like Japan and China and it's continuing to be on the up trend in those countries. In the 2019 MLB season the first regular season games were played in Tokyo, Japan. This series was between the Oakland Athletics and the Seattle Mariners. These games were played a week or so before the rest of the MLB season started. Ichiro Suzuki returned to his home country for this series, the future hall of famer announced these were going to be the last games of the very long career of his. Ichiro was 45 years old at the time of his retirement, he played professional baseball for 28 years on 2 continents. In his last game in the eighth inning he was taken out of the game to a very loud ovation from his home country. Suzuki wanted to end his career in the same place it started, his home, Japan.
This 2019 season is seeing the highest paid players of all time. There was also some very important free agent moves that happened later than many experts predicted. Mike Trout is the highest paid player in the league. This season alone he will be getting paid 39 million dollars. This is pretty good compared to the amounts that athletes get paid in other professional sports like the NFL. Their highest paid player, Russell Wilson, will be getting paid 35 million dollars this year which is still obviously quite a lot, but for a seemingly more dangerous sport of football a baseball player is getting paid more for risking their body less. However, MLB baseball players have a total of 162 games on schedule and that is a lot more than the 16 of NFL football. Most other players that have top salaries are pitchers. Pitchers are usually the highest paid because their jobs are the most important. Some of the other highest paid players include; Stephen Strasburg who is a pitcher for the Washington Nationals and is making 38.3 million dollars for the 2019 season, his teammate, Max Scherzer, is the next highest paid player at 37.4 million dollars a year. Max Scherzer is also a pitcher. The next highest paid position player is Miguel Cabrera. Miguel Cabrera is a first baseman for the Detroit Tigers he has been in the Major Leagues for quite a long time and is widely regarded as one of the best hitters in the game. In the minor leagues things are very different. In the minors players get paid very little and have brutal travel schedules. There are different levels to the minor leagues. There is Short Session A for high school and college players that were drafted, then if the organization decides that the player is worth keeping they move them up to Low A then increasing from there it goes; high A, Double A, Triple A then the Majors. This is a very, very long process for many players and there are a lot of them that never make it to the majors. A lot get released early in their careers before they can get out of the farm system.
In recent years there are a many that have argued that the MLB and baseball in general is not as popular as it used to be and that it's no longer America’s Pastime. They say that due to the game being “boring” the youth are starting to watch it less and are becoming less involved with the game. However, this is not necessarily true. There are many kids across the US and the rest of the world that still love the game and it is only a small portion of people across the world that don't like the game and it is still as strong if not stronger than it used to be. Lots of kids and adults alike still have a love for the game.