Unstoppable? The International Political Economy Analysis on the Exodus of Taiwanese Baseball Talents
Date Issued
2010
Date
2010
Author(s)
Tao-yun Yang, Frentzen
Abstract
Recently, the exodus of Taiwanese amateur high school and college baseball talents has been the prominent phenomenon in Taiwan. Since Chin-feng Chen was recruited by the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1999, there have been forty-six Taiwanese amateur baseball talents starting their careers in the Organized Baseball of the United States. This thread made a direct impact on Taiwanese baseball.
Apart from the perspectives of Sociology and Economics, “state-centered” approach of Political Science was applied in this research to analyze whether the transnational migration of Taiwanese baseball players was triggered by the political and social transitions in both the United States and Taiwan.
The globalization theory of Philip Cerny in International Political Economy was applied in this research to reinterpret the phenomenon of transnational migration of baseball talents. Through a century-long view at the interaction between the Major League Baseball (MLB) and the government of the United States, Chapter 3 and 4 explain why MLB has become the supreme stage of worldwide baseball. In addition, the phenomena of the internationalization of talent-searching and the transnationalization of marketing were also explained through the analysis of the transition of national policies in the United States.
The organized baseball industry in United States stands for the compromise for interests between conglomerates and the U.S. government. MLB is exemplified from the Federal Antitrust Law exclusively. Its legitimacy based on three jurisdictions and a series of “inaction” of the Congress. Without the restraint of Federal Antitrust Law, MLB capitalized upon its exemplified status to threat the local governments for subsidies, monopoly the broadcast revenue and all baseball players in U.S. to build the hegemony of Organized Baseball. Since the 1960s, however, the reflection in US politics compelled all teams in MLB to internationalize their talent-searching, which later formed two different recruiting styles in Latin America and East-Asia. Following the internationalization of talent-searching, MLB transnationalized its marketing strategies, which triggered the “baseball nationalism” unintentionally in both regions in the late 90s. Therefore, a world-wide organized baseball hegemony of MLB emerged.
Chapter 5 focused on the cooperation and competition for the baseball talents between the public and private sections in Taiwan. Since 1999, Taiwanese government has shifted the carrier of “baseball nationalism” from “Chinese Taipei baseball team of amateur” to “Chinese Taipei baseball team of U.S. farm system” and “Taiwan-Yankee Team”, the former is composed of talents playing professional baseball in the United States and the latter was headed by Chien-ming Wang, the starting pitcher of the New York Yankees from 2005 to 2009.
There are two reasons hastening the outflow of Taiwanese baseball talents. On one hand, Taiwanese government intended to precipitate the exodus of elite players by the means of setting up the programs of cooperative education and lifting the compulsory military service; on the other hand, the exodus of elite players was also expedited by the degeneracy of local professional baseball league, the apathy of administrative and legislative departments to the rights of players and the rampant gambling and game fixing manipulated by the synthesis of local gangsters and politicians.
This research reinterpreted the phenomenon of the exodus of Taiwanese baseball talents on the periscope of Political Science. Apart from the mainstream discourse which regarded “baseball globalization” as an independent variable to the exodus of Taiwanese baseball talents, this research argues that “baseball globalization” was triggered by the internationalization, transnationalization and baseball nationalism brought by the interaction of governments and private sectors. It is the result of the interaction of all actors in political process that made the exodus of Taiwanese baseball amateur elite talents.
Subjects
baseball globalization
International Political Economy
Taiwanese baseball
Major League Baseball
political process.
Type
thesis
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