This is an excerpt from the latest edition of Michael Clair's International Beat Newsletter, bringing global baseball news to your inbox every month. Sign up for future installments HERE and check out the full newsletter, featuring a Q+A with the first French player ever taken in the MLB Draft, HERE....

Major League Baseball’s viewership in both the United States and Japan continues to grow in the wake of rule changes that have made the game more entertaining and with the stars of the game, like reigning MVPs Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge, exciting fans with brilliant performances. With more than...

When did baseball begin in Japan? Its date of birth seems to have been pushed back yet again. It was long thought that baseball was introduced in Japan in 1872 by American professor Horace Wilson, who taught it to his students at Kaisei Academy in Arakawa, Tokyo....

Watch Jung Hoo Lee rake in San Francisco, and you'll see one of the more unique swings in Major League Baseball. His swing marches forward like a military procedure. Step 1: Lee starts standing tall and spread out in the batter's box, his hands high over his head and his...

This story was excerpted from Maria Guardado’s Giants Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox....

Luke Salas looked out over the ballfield in Budapest, Hungary, last summer and couldn't believe where baseball had taken him. The former Pepperdine University player, who spent a year in the Texas Rangers organization, had always been interested in international baseball, but now found himself the manager for Croatia's team...