شرکت در آزمون آنلاین زبان انگلیسی 1 - زبان انگلیسی 1 | آزمون شماره 9016

Baseball is sometimes called “the national pastime” of the United States. But modern baseball is truly an international game.

Baseball began in the U.S. in the early 19th century. The first World Series was played in 1903. However, only American and Canadian teams played in the series. The first non-U.S. victory was by the Toronto Blue Jays in 1991.

Since the early 1990s, the managers of the U.S. teams have brought several foreign players to the U.S. game. Today, about 30 percent of players in American baseball come from foreign countries, including Puerto Rico, Japan, South Korea, and the Dominican Republic.

One of the first Asian players in the U.S. was Japanese pitcher Hideo Nomo. Nomo got a lot of attention from the media when he joined the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1995. Soon, many other U.S. teams were making contracts with players from other countries.

Today, world-class baseball is available to more fans than ever before. In 1994, baseball became part of the Asian Games. In 2006, 16 teams from around the world took part in the first World Baseball Classic  -an international series of professional baseball games. Finally, baseball has become a truly global pastime.

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