Import/Export Business

The NBA is currently playing a regular season game in London.  The game is between the New York Knicks and the Detroit Pistons.  Has the NBA been sending over regular season games to Europe for awhile now?

I am not a big NBA fan so, I am not really sure if they have been exporting basketball to England for several years now.

This is a good idea for the NBA to grow in a large city like London that also has wealthy people living within the city limits.  It is also a positive because the game started at noon pacific time.  Not too many sporting options to choose from on a Thursday afternoon.  Sports junkies like me need my fix as often as possible.

Noon on a week day for a pro sporting event works for me.

This has also led me to think of other sports that can be imported or exported to countries that may not be known traditionally to view or participate in the given sport.

Rugby could be brought into this country from England.  England has a pro rugby league and we have stadiums that could suit the dimensions of the sport.  The sport has confusing rules that I think the American sporting public could grasp after viewing rugby matches played at a high level.  Rugby has the physical nastiness that Americans enjoy in sports, it has speed and kicking for points just like our football.

Send us some top pro teams, England.  The sport can grow here.

I think MLB could send baseball pretty much anywhere that the sport isn't appreciated yet and it will catch on eventually.  Baseball just takes years to learn and understand.  It may take generations to play, live and breathe with the sports until it takes root in a sporting nation.

The countries that Americans introduced baseball to are now rabid about the sport.  Think about the passion that Japan and the Domincan show for the game.  Baseball needs a European presence to become closer to becoming a global game.

Maybe MLB could stage some games in Europe someday.  Stadiums will be an issue though.  There has to be one baseball stadium in Europe, right?  Just one?

That was just a thought that I was having while watching some daytime NBA action and digging through a trade package that was sent my way from Jim of the blog GCRL.

The trade package that he sent my way was puffed up.  The reason for the bulkiness was this Hideo Nomo tin.  I was surprised to get this as part of our trade.  I enjoy collecting Dodger knickknacks like this.  Someday, I will have half my house filled with items like this.

This tin was made in 1997 by Topps and it contained one moving action baseball card.  This tin was empaty so, I am not too sure what a moving action baseball card really is.  Maybe it was a film strip that one could play on his old school film projector?

That wouldn't be a bad idea for a release.  How many people have film projectors?  Would collectors take the extra time to dust off an old film projector to view such an item?

Jim sent me a few cards from this 2002 SP Legendary Cuts set.  This set in new to me.  The photography is stellar and I enjoy the simpleness of the card design.

I will have to chase down more cards from this set.  There are probably some good classic Dodger photos in this set.

This trade helped me knock a few numbers off my 70s Topps Dodgers team sets.  This project is moving slowly.  I am somewhat close to finishing some of the team sets from the late-70s.

With some luck and kindness from the blog world, I should be able to wrap up at least a couple of the team sets.  That is another one of my random 2013 collecting goals.

Thanks for the tin and baseball cards, Jim.

Also, England please send us some rugby.  I need a new sport to get into.