Baseball on Christmas Day
Who says they don’t play baseball on Christmas.
The Cuban League has a very heavy schedule of games, but as a communist country they are not supposed to believe in Christmas, so perhaps that one doesn’t count.
The Mexican Winter League has a large schedule of games on Christmas day. Last I checked Mexico wasn’t communist, but they sure must like to play baseball. The other Caribbean countries took both Christmas eve and Christmas off, though the Dominican season is technically done with their first round.
Finally, in Taiwan they are having a huge international baseball tournament. More than 2,000 teenaged baseball players from Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong and of course Taiwan are playing in a tournament in Chiayi City in Taiwan. They had a parade in the middle of the street on Christmas Eve to celebrate the beginning of the 14th annual tournament that has gone from 35 teams to 138.
You can read about the tournament here: http://focustaiwan.tw/ShowNews/WebNews_Detail.aspx?Type=aSPT&ID=201112240024
And though it is not baseball on Christmas day related, many women in Korea are looking for baseball gifts under their Christmas tree this year. It seems that the surge in popularity of baseball in Korea is assisted by the number of woman that attend games. Studies have shown that 39 percent of the fans at a Korean baseball game are woman. You won’t find that percentage at a U.S. ballpark.
You can read that story here: http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/sports/2011/12/136_101518.html
Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas.