In his 17 seasons in the major leagues, Robinson Cano has seen and done just about everything a pro baseball player could ask for.
But the eight-time MLB All-Star is embarking on a new adventure overseas with a baseball league taking shape in a part of the world not traditionally associated with the sport.
Cano, 40, became a part of the ownership group of the Dubai-based professional baseball league, Baseball United, in September and was selected sixth overall in its inaugural draft last month.
The opportunity to help shape Baseball United and get another crack on the field could also be a way to reframe the end of his career.
“Now you see baseball players, when they get to 32, 33 if they’re not playing at a high level they’re not even going to get a chance to play in the big leagues,” Cano told The Post about how competitive it has become, while not speaking specifically about his situation. “So guys have to go to Mexico. If you don’t do your job right away then you get released.”
Cano has 2,600 hits, five Silver Slugger Awards, two Gold Gloves and a World Series.
His final years were filled with controversy, though, including two PED suspensions — one each with the Mariners and Mets.
Cano’s final season in 2022 included 33 games split between the Mets, Padres and Braves, all ending with an unceremonious release.
And perhaps that experience is part of what motivated Cano to want to become involved with Baseball United.
The new league will not only bring baseball to the Middle East and South Asia, but for Cano, it’s an opportunity to help give other ballplayers a chance at extending their careers.
Baseball United boasts several familiar names, including Bartolo Colón, 50, Didi Gregorius, 33, and Pablo Sandoval, 37.
“[The league is] a great opportunity…for guys that play baseball that never got a chance to kind of get to play for some time, and also, I will say more that I’m opening the door for a lot of guys that would love to keep playing baseball,” said Cano, who played the first nine years of his career with the Yankees.
“I think as a baseball player… if I get another chance to play the game, because, I will say, especially guys from the Caribbean, all we know is how to play baseball. Cause we worked so hard, we put so much work into baseball. We always want to do our best, we want to be good. We want to be the best. And to see that when I get to be with basically united and see this opportunity, I said yes right away.”
Baseball United will begin play this week with a pair of showcase games on Friday and Saturday in Dubai between two all-star teams and then kick off their inaugural “season one” in November and December 2024, according to league vice chairman John Miedreich.
The league currently has four teams and Meidreich said that games will be played in several cities in the region, but not in Dubai, Miedreich added.
It follows the recent trend of Middle Eastern money flowing into pro sports — from the LIV Golf league to Ronaldo signing with Saudi Arabia’s Al Nassr club.
Baseball United is the first professional baseball league based in the Middle East and hopes to build off of the popularity of cricket as well as what Miedreich said was an already established interest in the sport in the region.
“There was this kind of void where we could kind of plug the hole in this part of the globe,” Miedreich told The Post. “Baseball is alive and kicking globally. It’s a matter of, we want to honor the tradition of the game. We want to honor the pageantry of the game, the romance of the game and the 150-year history.
“While at the same time, innovate it and create, and target, a new market. A young demographic in this new area of the world as the irreverent baseball brand that Baseball United is.”
Led by President and CEO Kash Shaikh, Baseball United believes it has a group in place that can make the league successful.
Its early stakeholders include Yankees legend and Hall-of-Famer Mariano Rivera, Hall-of-Famer Barry Larkin, Adrian Beltre, Felix Hernandez, Elvis Andrus, Nick Swisher and Ryan Howard.
Cano has already been involved with collaborating with them on ideas and working to recruit players to the upstart league.
“Something that I love about is that we do everything as a group,” Cano said. “We share ideas. And using my knowledge and some other guys’ knowledge to bring guys and the way we want things to be done and recruiting guys. I love to be part of that. I love that.”
Source
