With the victory sweep of the CTBC Brothers against the Uni-President Lions in Game 4 of the Taiwan Series today, the 175th year of baseball’s existence has finally ended.
It is with great sadness but with great honor that indeed I thus inform the millions of baseball fans that today has marked the end of a memorable chapter in the history of our sport and the beginning of a new one. In this memorable year about to close, we have been witnesses to a number of memorable new moments in our ballparks around the world, to many new records made, tearful in sad moments and in the retirements of our players, laughed in the funny moments, and rejoiced in history made in every baseball stadium around the world and in new champions celebrated.
In this very special Olympic year, we are forever grateful for the return of the fans to our stadiums, the return of the College World Series, Little League World Series and for the first time since 2008, baseball in the Summer Olympic Games, and in the many champions crowned in each of the national leagues this year. And of course, we will never forget the fire of revival that the Olympics brought to our sport, which in just a few days after that Gold Medal Game in Yokohama, was lit in the cornfields of Iowa in the MLB’s first ever Field of Dreams Game.
Thanks be to all of you who made this year a part of our lives and now a part of baseball history, a year that will undoubtedly be one of many defining years in our sport’s journey.
Today we also begin a new chapter in our sport’s history as yesterday marked the appointment of a new skipper for Samurai Japan’s men’s pro team, Hideki Kuriyama, who will steer the team towards the preparations for the forthcoming return of the World Baseball Classic.
Together as one sport and fans united as one, in this continuing journey to the World Baseball Classic, and the resolutions on both a new CBA for the MLB and the Players’ Association and the permanent return of Olympics baseball, let us continue our onwards march towards the bright future of our global sport. For together, we will get there.
For Glory
-John
