Baseball United, which began with a couple of exhibition matches last year at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, will kick off in October 2025 with five professional teams featuring some of the game’s biggest names.
While the scale of the event is huge, Venezuelan MLB star Robinson Chirinos who left his country at 16 and carved a niche of his own as a catcher with stints at Texas Rangers, Houston Astros, New York Mets, Chicago Cubs and Baltimore Orioles is also excited about a minor league — the BU Arab Classic, a tournament for amateurs launched to help the sport grow in the Middle East and South Asia.
The 40-year-old is a co-owner of Baseball United, a new ambitious baseball league launched last year in Dubai.
The BU Arab Classic will see the national teams of the UAE, Saudi Arabia, India, Pakistan and Palestine go toe to toe on the baseball diamond this November.
Chirinos, who was recently in Dubai for an event, says it’s gratifying to be able to give aspiring baseball players from a war-torn country like Palestine an opportunity to live their dreams.
It’s going to be the first time Pakistan and India will be playing a baseball game. Watch out for this one!
