If I ran a MLB team I'd be sure to set up a training camp in India somewhere. You have over a billion people (about 4 times the US population) and cricket is very popular, thus the skill transfer shouldn't be a total nightmare, especially for pitchers. Do training from a young age ala the Dominican (say, 14) and see if you can turn raw athletes into major leaguers. There is no reason it couldn't work, and the cost would not be a nightmare. English is an official language there, thus translation issues would be minimal. I just don't see the downside to giving it a shot.

I just don't see the downside to giving it a shot.

The downside is that it costs a lot of money to set up and operate a training camp, there is no direct precedent for success, and the payoff would not be realized for at least a decade, if at all.

The downside is that it costs a lot of money to set up and operate a training camp, there is no direct precedent for success, and the payoff would not be realized for at least a decade, if at all.

Which is why something like John's idea would have to come from ownership (who have both the money to burn and willingness to wait it out) rather than a GM.

That was a nice smackdown of a comment. (#3)

How much money to set up a training camp in a country where most items cost 1/6th of what they cost here? Buy some cheap land, put a complex of diamonds on it that are 1/2 decent (high school level, not MLB level quality) and send over a team of coaches and hire some locals for any translation/culture issues. If it cost $1 million a year it would be a good investment for a club as all it would take to break even is probably one ML regular player/pitcher a decade showing up from it. Much cheaper than most methods of hunting down players, and if you find a kid with an arm that can throw 90+ you might get a return within 5 years or less - about as fast as drafting a high schooler which GM's do all the time.

As I said, this should be a no-brainer for any ML team. Even if all the 30 teams went there India is so big they could each set up camp in different areas and never have two teams see the same kid.

there is a good reason to think it wouldn't work. There's about a billion people in India, but obviously not a billion people would sign up to train - some very small number would. Second, there's no way to funnel the best talent out of that billion to the training camp - it would likely be some kind of random group of kids. Even if you hold some type of tryout, you're still not necessarily talking about top talent showing up.

Given this scenario, the likelihood of finding one decent ML regular player/pitcher is actually remarkably small, even per decade. There's a real good chance there would be no payoff at all, even after ten years.

I took my ex-wife's cousin's husband to a batting cage a few times. He grew up in India, and is cricket crazy, of course. While his batting stance was unorthodox - he had happy feet - within a few pitches he was roping line drives like no one's business.

One data point, but hand-eye coordination is hand-eye coordination.

You could train the kids to play ball during the day, then at night have them staff your call center for season tickets. It's win-win.

One data point, but hand-eye coordination is hand-eye coordination.

Bingo. On top the eye-hand coordination, I noticed the same thing that happened with cricketers in grad school who played on our softball team... New Zealand, South Africa, India... all of these guys took a little time to get used to hitting a ball that's not bouncing, but the cricket swing is really designed for power (probably due to the looping swings + the power shift to the front leg). When they made contact, they showed serious gap power... at times, it was startling, because these were all statistics PhD students. In particular, there was an Indian guy who was not athletic at all who just mashed the ball on occasion.

Buy some cheap land

Cheap land is cheap for a reason. Inconvenient location is the most likely culprit.

send over a team of coaches

Who are these coaches? I can't fathom a good baseball coach who would agree to be sent over to coach in a country halfway around the world where nobody plays baseball. If my employer tried to do this to me, I'd quit and find a different organization, unless there was a lot of money in it for me.

If it cost $1 million a year

It won't. The coaching staff alone will cost much more than that. Then you have to buy/rent the land, maintain the facility, and advertise. Typically these programs involve some sort of sponsorship for the participants (housing, meals, tutoring, scholarships) as an incentive as well.

I will conservatively estimate $5M/year as the total operating costs. If I were an owner, I'd give this a quick veto.

"If my employer tried to do this to me, I'd quit and find a different organization, unless there was a lot of money in it for me."

I'm not even a bad coach, but I'd jump at the chance. Whose inner 12-year-old wouldn't enjoy something like that?

5 million bucks a year for the chance to build your team's identity in the second largest country in the world and maybe find some talent as well? I don't think I'd be so quick with a veto. It's an intriguing idea.

5 million bucks a year for the chance to build your team's identity in the second largest country in the world and maybe find some talent as well? I don't think I'd be so quick with a veto. It's an intriguing idea.

Unfortunately, we live in a world where MLB teams will select a demonstrably inferior player in the draft to save far less money than 5 million bucks. I'd love it if MLB teams invested more in undeveloped sources of overseas talent... I want all the best athletes in the world playing baseball for my own selfish enjoyment. But I think #10 has nailed the reality of the situation. If baseball is going to take off in India, it's probably going to require the efforts of several Indian Johnny Appleseeds.

No kidding, Shooty. Especially when the decision could be something as simple as, "Should we open a camp in India or should we sign Steve Kline?"

But I think #10 has nailed the reality of the situation. If baseball is going to take off in India, it's probably going to require the efforts of several Indian Johnny Appleseeds.

Wouldn't all those trees get in the way of the field?

the chance to build your team's identity in the second largest country in the world and maybe find some talent as well?

It wouldn't be "maybe find some talent." The talent is the only reason you would ever open up the camp. Baseball is not watched in India, to any degree. Nobody cares about it. So you cannot with any justification characterize it as an investment: you are not going to get your $5 million per year back through t-shirt sales.

"Wouldn't all those trees get in the way of the field?"

Naw, just make 'em all into bats.

A little Googlework exposed the following: MLB hosted baseball camps in India in 2006. They started in Manipur, a state with only 2 million people in the extreme Northeast that apparently has 20 amateur clubs with 700 players. Manipur is a "sensitive" state in which tourism is restricted outside of the capital because of rebel activity.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lmdWuAaBQQ

That video is worth watching for the translation of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" into the obscure Meitei-lon language. The last line is, "eigi nungshiba baseball game da."

They started in Manipur

Noone cares about Manipur, other than Manipurians! Thats like opening a cricket academy in Idaho to promote cricket in the US.

And it won't need many pioneers. It will need one person to make it to the Majors. Given the amount of money that is available to a successful baseball player, that should open the floodgates.
The problem other sports in India face is that noone can stand up to the money and machinery cricket has. The cricket board in India is supposedly the richest private board in the world.
MLB might have the money and the appropriate carrot to take a stance.

That was a nice smackdown of a comment. (#3)

Uh...thanks?

You could train the kids to play ball during the day, then at night have them staff your call center for season tickets. It's win-win.

This killed me.

Uh...thanks?

Hmmm. I made an error. #2 was the smackdown

Manipur? I never would have guessed. The people there are more like Burmese people than they are Indians. In fact, Bollywood movies are banned because of the undesirable Hindi influence on the local children. And there are 20 amateur baseball clubs there? Maybe it's in order to strike a blow against the hegemonic influence of cricket.

Noone cares about Manipur, other than Manipurians! Thats like opening a cricket academy in Idaho to promote cricket in the US.

Yeah, really. More than that, even. It would be like a cricket academy in Guam.

I'm not even a bad coach, but I'd jump at the chance. Whose inner 12-year-old wouldn't enjoy something like that?

I think it would probably be irresponsible to "jump" at anything like this, but I won't speak to your situation specifically.

I will wager that most baseball coaches who are capable of running this type of program have families and are unfamiliar with Indian culture, and thus are pretty bad candidates to move across the globe. Do you think Tom Emanski's wife and kids are going to support his decision to move to India to coach some cricket players?

Grumpy!