The Dodgers have announced a renewed partnership with the Taiwan Tourism Bureau for the 2011 season... "As Taiwan celebrates its 100th anniversary, we will celebrate with the Dodgers, who have had the longest history in MLB with Taiwan, by paying tribute in-stadium on two very special promotional nights."

The Dominican Republic is one of the most baseball-crazed countries in the Caribbean. Major League teams have set up multi-million dollar training and scouting facilities here to find the next great prospect.

“We want to give these aspiring children boys and girls—wealthy and poor—the opportunity to learn and develop their skills in baseball,” [US Ambassador to the Philippines Harry] Thomas said, citing the case of Filipino-American Tim Lincecum...

From Caracas to Seoul, America's beloved sport is a global obsession.

It was a moment of sports diplomacy— two groups of boys separated by language, culture and food but united in their love for an American game that only recently has been exported to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

The Vermont Institute on the Caribbean, better known as VIC, organized a cultural baseball exchange in 2007. Sending kids and parents to the Dominican Republic, they are housed with local families, learning about their way of life and of course, baseball.

The conversation began innocently enough - sitting on a porch in Half Moon Bay, overlooking, ironically, The Mavericks - where only the best come to surf and conquer the monster waves.

“Cari, you’re a Five Tool Wife,” remarked one of my husband’s friends.