Ever since baseball was first played in the 1830s, the game has regarded as America’s national pastime.

However, baseball actually has more popularity in several foreign countries such as Japan, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Venezuela, Taiwan, the Dominican Republic, and Panama. As a result, baseball has had a tradition for over a century of being an international sport.

Out of all of America’s major sports leagues, Major League Baseball has the most racial and cultural diversity among its players. Star players such as Vladimir Guerrero, Ichiro Suzuki, Ryan Howard, Alex Rodriguez, and Chipper Jones show a cultural balance in star power that is not apparent in the NBA or NFL.

Baseball spread quickly internationally after the game was invented. American expatriates and foreign students spread baseball into Mexico, Cuba, and Canada in the mid-nineteenth century. Following the end the shogun reign of Japan, American traders spread baseball to Japan, where it quickly became the country’s national pastime.

When Japan became an imperial power, it spread baseball along with its influence to Pacific Rim nations such as South Korea and Taiwan, while Cubans introduced the sport to the rest of Latin America and the Caribbean nations. Since the early twentieth century, professional sports league have been established and prosper in baseball-playing nations, with sizable numbers of players from these countries playing in the American Major Leagues.

Consistent international baseball competition began with the Caribbean Baseball World Series in 1949, a showdown of Latin American club teams. The IOC in 1992 introduced baseball as medal sport in the Summer Olympics. In 2006, the first World Baseball Classic was played across the baseball world with incredible fanfare.

In terms of Major League Baseball, several major leagues established their farm teams in Canadian cities in the 1940s and 1950s. In fact, from 1954-1960, there was triple-A team in Cuba known as the Havana Sugar Kings. If it was not for Fidel Castro plunging the island into communism, Cuba would probably have a Major League team by now (all other International League cities at that time have/had a major league franchise since).

It was not until the inception of the Montreal Expos in 1969 that Major League baseball expanded outside of the Untied States. The Toronto Blue Jays became the first Canadian franchise in the American League in 1977—as well as the first foreign baseball team to win a World Series, in 1992.

Nevertheless, baseball has struggled to gain a footing in countries that lack a tradition of baseball in their past. In Europe, baseball has gained little traction and has been marginalized to the degree that cricket and lacrosse have been in the United States.

Due to intense poverty, there is little to no presence of baseball in the Africa or the Middle East as a result of the relatively high cost of equipment.

The only South American country that has embraced baseball is Venezuela, and Oceania lacks a baseball following. China is the only country that has adopted baseball in recent years. Baseball is also losing popularity to American football and basketball in the United States and Canada due to a steroids scandal, Bud Selig’s poor management, and an aging fan base.

What can Major League Baseball do to make baseball popular across the globe and remain relevant on the world stage? Intercontinental expansion is impossible, due to games being played every day and the long travel times across oceans.

The MLB can try adding teams in Latin America, but they would probably fail due to the lack of economic development and wealth in these countries.

What baseball needs to do is continue its outreach into Asia, while also aggressively marketing the game in Europe. Baseball also needs to extend its appeal to the under-40 crowd and revive its current young fan base. Overall, baseball has an international presence, but has a long and difficult road to globalization.

Globalization has taken the hold of America’s major sport, but no league has had more success or a more involved future with the international market than the NBA.

Seventy-six of the NBA’s 360 active roster players are international players from thirty-eight different countries. Yao Ming regularly breaks the record for the most votes to the All-Star team, Steve Nash and Dirk Nowitzki (both born outside of the US) won three of the last four MVP awards, and the San Antonio Spurs have won three championships in the past five years with a primarily foreign core of star players.

With this increased prominence of international NBA stars inspired from the first Dream Teams, the NBA has made basketball only second to soccer as the world’s most popular sport.

Financially, globalization skyrocketed the revenues of the NBA. International customers now consist of nearly 50 percent of jersey and merchandise sales. The internet has helped spread the popularity of the NBA.

Fifty-three percent of NBA.com traffic is now coming from outside the U.S., up a third from five years ago. And 20 percent is from China alone. The NBA also has TV deals with over 100 countries and the playoffs along with several regular season games broadcast live across the globe.

When the Milwaukee Bucks played the Houston Rockets on Nov. 9, 2007, an audience of 200 million people viewed the game (That is more than the Super Bowl). Overall, globalization had paid incredible dividends financially to the NBA.

What does the future of the new globalized NBA? First, international players will continue to make up a higher percentage of the players in the league. The international  market will quickly exceed the US market by 2010. However, the biggest change to the NBA that will happen is European expansion.

Half of international players are of European descent, NBA style arenas have been built in London, Spain, Germany, and France, and an established fan base of Euroleague fans are ready to embrace big-time NBA basketball.

The best way for the NBA to expand into Europe is to add a six team European Division to the Eastern Conference. Location of these franchises would be determined by the largest basketball markets and cities with NBA ready stadiums.

The best candidates for NBA expansion are London, Paris, Madrid/Barcelona, Berlin, Rome, and Athens. Instead of the normal suggestion of five teams, adding six teams will balance the NBA with thirty-six teams while keeping the six division format. Each division would now include six teams instead of five.

As a result, the rest of the NBA would have to realign to adjust to the compensate for the new Euro-division. The Central Division would move to the Western Conference and add the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Washington Wizards would move to the Atlantic Division, while the New Orleans Hornets and Memphis Grizzlies would switch conferences and move to the Southeast Division.

The Northwest Division would discontinue and the Utah Jazz, Denver Nuggets, and Seattle Supersonics (if they move to Oklahoma City) would join the Southwest Division. The Portland Trailblazers would join the Pacific Division to complete realignment.

If the Sonics manage to stay in Seattle, then they would go to the Pacific Division and the Phoenix Suns would go to the Southwest Division.

In terms of scheduling, each team would play divisional opponents four times (20 games total) and every other team twice (60 games total) for an 80-game season. The subtraction of games in the season makes for increased travel times and rest for transatlantic flights.

Each division winner will have a playoff spot plus the top the remaining top five teams in each conference. Once the construction of NBA stadiums are complete, their seems to be no problems in implementing this schedule and with declining value of the US dollar allows greater profit opportunities for European teams.

Prime time television in major European markets will also skyrocket the revenues and the popularity of the NBA as it will become the first major intercontinental professional sports league.

However, there are still some problems with European expansion that will have to be dealt with in the process. The language and cultural barrier between Europe and the American basketball player poses challenges, and players may not want to live and play in a foreign country (Toronto is in Canada, but the cultural divide is not nearly as evident).

Second, both American and European fans will have a hard time watching their teams’ road games on the other continent due to time zone differences. Despite these challenges, European expansion is the future of the further globalization of the NBA and its quest to challenge soccer as the world’s sport.