the empire strikes out, high heat
Reviewed by Joseph Arbena, Clemson University
2 July 2010 archive
Allen Guttmann has long argued that we must understand sports both in their extrinsic contexts and for their intrinsic qualities. These two volumes illustrate these approaches to an extreme. In the more comprehensive and academic of the two, political scientist Robert Elias, who teaches at the University of San Francisco and has written extensively on international relations, links his interest in the latter with his apparent love of baseball, though not necessarily of Major League Baseball (MLB). Tim Wendel, although he teaches at Johns Hopkins University , is primarily a journalist and writer, a founding editor of USA Today Baseball Weekly, and author of seven sports books. Their focus and approach is dramatically different here, but both touch on the centrality of baseball in the American consciousness and identity.
It can be easily maintained that Elias' thesis is political, even ideological. From its time during the Civil War era as incipient national pastime, organized baseball, which eventually became MLB, "has tried to associate itself with the values of the American dream. It has also sought to equate itself with American masculinity and patriotism, and with U.S. military endeavors in particular" (p. 1). At home it has served in the process of assimilation and racial control, while internationally, it has been an integral part of imperial growth and a model for globalization. This uncompromising support by MLB for condescending, aggressive, often military actions against smaller, weaker peoples continues down to the present, even though in the minds of many, football is now the premier American pastime and more truly representative of American values and culture. In the end, this marriage did not always aid the imperial push, as dominated societies often rejected the game or turned it into their own nationalistic expression. And the cost to baseball itself was the loss of a certain degree of spontaneity and integrity.
A recent contradiction in baseball's behavior is that, despite the flyovers, flag-waving, prayer times, patriotic sing-alongs, and windy speeches, during Vietnam, the Gulf Wars, post-9/11, Iraq, and Afghanistan, virtually no MLB or high minor league players joined the armed forces to fight, unlike in World Wars I & II and Korea when volunteers and draftees depleted or at least reduced rosters. In short, even more than before, it has been business as usual for MLB since the 1970s, profits trumping patriotism on the home front.
I also found a few what I consider factual errors, suggesting that Elias can at times be loose with the facts and overly exuberant in looking for supportive evidence and in arguing his case. For example, French citizen Philippe Bunau-Varilla was never a " U.S. minister," and the U.S. never "annexed Panama " (p. 66). Later, drawing on William Kelly, Elias claims that, in contrast to baseball, soccer is "played almost universally worldwide with little style variation" (p. 289), an assertion contradicted by such writers as Galeano, Murray, Mason, and even Salman Rushdie.
If Elias' arguments border on overkill, they are not out of line with what others have concluded. Gems, Bjarkman, Klein, Regalado, Pope, and more have previously linked baseball to American cultural, military, political, and economic empire building and likened the signing of foreign baseball talent to U.S. contracts to the classical pattern of exploitation of foreign natural resources for the benefit of the metropolitan center.
No denying that Elias' compilation of sources is awesome. I wish, however, that he had included a bibliography because, at times after encountering an abbreviated entry in an endnote, it is almost impossible to find the full citation.
Wendel is less concerned with the heat that the American Empire, supported by MLB, has applied to other peoples and cultures than the heat that exceptionally talented pitchers have tossed at unprotected hitters: "The allure of speed, however fleeting and capricious, remained one of the game's constants" (p. 232). What was and is the source of that ability to throw so hard, what explains the success of those who have ridden it to fame and fortune, and who have been the fastest in the game's century and a half of fascination?
First is rare, natural talent: the gift of an ability to throw hard and more or less accurately. After that it's dedication and mental discipline. It's not physical size. And it's not a blessed or cursed upbringing; it can be either or both.
Tied to Wendel's evaluation of these fastball hurlers are several asides that make the book even more intriguing and informative. These include an explanation of biomechanics as related to pitching and of the miraculous Tommy John surgery; also, an introduction to James Creighton, "the game's first true fireballer" (p. 13), and an extensive analysis of the talents and problems of little-known Steve Dalkowski. Unfortunately, the text carries no foot or endnotes, so all the anecdotes and quotes are undocumented.
The careers of Steve Blass, Mark Wohlers, and most dramatically Dalkowski illustrate the meaning of Frank Deford's recent confession that "pitchers fascinate me because a live arm is such a capricious possession and a dicey thing to depend on (Sports Illustrated, March 29, 2010, 60). Wendel also admits that "due to the expectations and pressures of possessing such rare talent, arguably more have suffered and even failed than have succeeded" (p. 232). Some have bounced back due to science and psychology, as seen in the Tommy John surgery, now so common. Others have drifted into obscurity or thoughts of what might have been; J.R. Richard on the mound, brought down by a stroke, and outfielder Tony Conigliaro, struck in the face in the batter's box, come to mind.
Wendel never addresses two intriguing and inter-related questions: 1) If his assumption is correct, why the American fascination with speed and quantification? Is this a uniquely American cultural characteristic? If so, 2) Is this focus on speed an equally important factor in the appeal of baseball outside the United States ?
Did Wendel's search for the fastest pitcher of all time lead to a conclusion? Based on available stats and loads of anecdotal evidence, the author lists his top twelve in this order: Nolan Ryan, Steve Dalkowski, Bob Feller, Walter Johnson, Sandy Koufax, Billy Wagner, "Satchel" Paige, Joel Zumaya, Amos Rusie, "Goose" Gossage, Bob Gibson, and J.R. Richard. Remember: the issue is speed, not wins, or strikeouts, or ERAs.
Although these two authors approach baseball from dramatically different angles, they both touch on one, perhaps marginal, topic that illustrates their personal interests and perspectives: the Caribbean baseball academies. Consistent with his criticisms of imperialism and globalization, Elias finds conditions at the academies "substandard," 'farms' that are the "modern-day manifestation of the sugar and banana plantations" (pp. 234, 288). To Elias this is further proof that MLB's behavior is "designed primarily to tap resources rather than to supply very much in exchange. Instead of developing the game abroad, organized baseball seems concerned mostly with extracting talent" (p. 287).
Wendel, more the optimist and promoter of the game, in contrast asserts that at the academies "the players' dorms or barracks often resemble the chain hotels," modeled "on Days Inns and Holiday Inns," such that "we prepare prospects from outside our borders better than we do the kids signed closer to home" (pp. 71, 73). An interesting footnote on this issue is the recent report by Melissa Segura that private capitalists have opened an academy independent of the MLB team programs and in competition with the traditional local scouts or buscones (Sports Illustrated [April 26, 2010], 20). Wendel may be pleased; I doubt if Elias will see it as a significant shift in the power relationship.
What do these books offer to members of SLA and students of sport literature generally? Directly, not very much. Both were written by authors who have also written sports novels: Elias' The Deadly Tools of Ignorance (2005) and Wendel's Castro's Curveball (1999). And both contain occasional references to other baseball novels. But the real value for all readers is what they suggest about the nature of the sport and its place in the larger American culture and imagination, thus providing context for writing and/or interpreting baseball fact and fiction.
Robert Elias, The Empire Strikes Out: How Baseball Sold U.S. Foreign Policy and Promoted the American Way of Life Abroad. New York : The New Press, 2010. Pp. xii, 418. Illus., notes, index. $27.95 (cloth).
Tim Wendel, High Heat: The Secret History of the Fastball and the Improbable Search for the Fastest Pitcher of All Time. Cambridge , MA : Da Capo Press, 2010. Pp. xii, 268. Illus., tables., sources, bibl., index. $25 (cloth).
Copyright © 2010 by Joseph Arbena.