On a baseball field, deep in the South American countryside, lies a place where MLB hopes to discover a new talent pool in its effort to expand the game. This is not the Dominican or Venezuelan power houses that initially come to mind, but Brazil, a country previously only thought of for its world-renowned soccer. It is here, at the Brazilian Baseball Academy, that I spent 9 weeks of my off-season working with the national 18u baseball team. While I found similarities, the contrasts to my previous trips to France and Sweden were as grand as the distance between the countries and presented unique hurdles. Despite oceans of separation, each of these countries shared a lack of knowledge of the
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