人文·体育·经济

    中国人口众多，加上中国文化的包容性，因此不同于欧美国家，任何一项运动都可以在中国找到市场。而正是看重这一点各种国外运动现在都纷纷抢摊中国，极力在中国推广。

    相信随着中国国民收入的增长，中国未来将是各种体育运动都非常发达的国度。

以上是美国职业棒球大联盟（MLB）最近在无锡做的一次棒球活动。棒球是美国最古老的一项运动，有近两百年的历史，纽约人Alexander Cartwright第一次指定棒球规则是1845年的事情。虽然起源于英国移民的一项运动rounders，但美国人把棒球设计得更加富有攻击性。以下是美国人对棒球的描述：

"Baseball," wrote Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens), "is the very symbol, the outward and visible expression of the drive and push and rush and struggle of the raging, tearing, booming nineteenth century." Baseball initially evolved into a favorite American sport because it was faster paced and more physical than its English predecessors, cricket, town-ball, and rounders. Though cricket was played wherever English immigrants congregated in the United States, Americans seemed to prefer the more aggressive character of baseball. Initially played by gentlemen in fashionable clothing, the game and its equipment—and its popularity—began to change once rules were written down in the 1840s. In particular, the game gained tremendous popularity after the Civil War. The ball itself was changed at least twice in that century: the first ball was too lively (scores sometimes exceeded 100 runs); the second was too dead (a scoreless 24-inning game convinced many that hitters were disadvantaged).

MLB比NFL、NBA的历史都要长，在1903年两大职业联盟美国联赛和全国联赛合并后有了现在的职棒大联盟（MLB），今天MLB在美国28所城市有30支球队，每支球队在六个月的赛季中要参加162场比赛，平均每周六场，强度远超过其他赛事。

美国人对棒球的热爱由来已久，即使在南北战争期间棒球联赛也没有中断过。比如在纽约，如果你不知道纽约杨基队或者纽约大都会队是很难想象的，就好像在欧洲长期居住不懂足球一样。由于棒球中有很多来自拉丁美洲的移民甚至还有亚洲球员，所以一些拉美国家的国家首脑在参加联合国大会时往往会去看棒球比赛。

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