I watched a film at the weekend called Sugar. It features a young Dominican trying to make it at baseball for Kansas. I was aware before the film about the camps that the big baseball franchises had in the Dominican Republic through a BBC documentary podcast.
From the movie I gathered that the route for a DR hopeful is training camp -> rookie ball -> A -> AA -> AAA -> minor -> MLB. [spoiler for movie]In the film the young hopeful reaches a Single A affiliate[/end spoiler]
Now, my knowledge of American Sports is limited. I've played basketball so have a decent understanding of the rules of the game but not a lot of understanding of the professional game beyond knowing about 20 absolute star name players. With NHL and NFL I know the rules through computer games and watching occasional NFL games. My knowledge of baseball comes from films and books for the most part. I've never watched more than an innings of the game and don't understand a lot of the statistics. The unifying thing for me with all games was that they have a draft and that's were new players come from.
Now I realise that I simplified that far too much. In the case of American Football I believe I'm right in saying that the only way to play in the NFL is coming through the collegiate system. I'm aware of other avenues such as the indoor league and the occasional punter/kicker from Europe or Australia. The majority of the players in the NFL are North American and have played in the high school system though.
It lead me to think what happens with the other three sports. All three have players from outside USA and Canada who can be considered world class. How do players from Europe end up in the NBA or NHL, is it the league who own their registration or the individual franchises? Does the player put himself up for an international draft? Are there international transfer fees to European clubs?
I had heard of baseball affiliates before. I imagined them as a type of lower league team that the MLB franchise had an agreement to loan players to. The movie made it seem like all the teams that were affiliated to the MLB franchise were bankrolled by them and all the playing and coaching staff were from the major league. Is that correct? What do supporters of the local league teams think of their town team being populated by a load of out of towners with no connection to the club? How is salary cap measured for all these development sides?
From the movie I gathered that the route for a DR hopeful is training camp -> rookie ball -> A -> AA -> AAA -> minor -> MLB. [spoiler for movie]In the film the young hopeful reaches a Single A affiliate[/end spoiler]
Now, my knowledge of American Sports is limited. I've played basketball so have a decent understanding of the rules of the game but not a lot of understanding of the professional game beyond knowing about 20 absolute star name players. With NHL and NFL I know the rules through computer games and watching occasional NFL games. My knowledge of baseball comes from films and books for the most part. I've never watched more than an innings of the game and don't understand a lot of the statistics. The unifying thing for me with all games was that they have a draft and that's were new players come from.
Now I realise that I simplified that far too much. In the case of American Football I believe I'm right in saying that the only way to play in the NFL is coming through the collegiate system. I'm aware of other avenues such as the indoor league and the occasional punter/kicker from Europe or Australia. The majority of the players in the NFL are North American and have played in the high school system though.
It lead me to think what happens with the other three sports. All three have players from outside USA and Canada who can be considered world class. How do players from Europe end up in the NBA or NHL, is it the league who own their registration or the individual franchises? Does the player put himself up for an international draft? Are there international transfer fees to European clubs?
I had heard of baseball affiliates before. I imagined them as a type of lower league team that the MLB franchise had an agreement to loan players to. The movie made it seem like all the teams that were affiliated to the MLB franchise were bankrolled by them and all the playing and coaching staff were from the major league. Is that correct? What do supporters of the local league teams think of their town team being populated by a load of out of towners with no connection to the club? How is salary cap measured for all these development sides?
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