baseball beyond our borders
Reviewed by Joseph L. Price, Institute for Baseball Studies, Whittier College
6 august 2018 archive
While baseball continues to be called America's national pastime by aging, devoted fans, it also enjoys a history as a national passion in multiple countries throughout the world. Before George Gmelch's completion of Baseball without Borders in 2006, the rosters of major league teams had included players born in 45 countries other than the United States. Shortly after the book's publication, players born in Guam and Indonesia became the first natives from their territories and nations to play in the major leagues, and in the following decade players born in Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong also broke into the major leagues for the first time while Yan Gomes, the initial player from Brazil, established himself as a catcher for the Cleveland Indians. Concurrent with publication of Baseball beyond Our Borders, the revised and expanded version of Gmelch's work now co-edited with Daniel Nathan, Gift Ngoepe, a native of South Africa, became the first major league player to have been born on the African continent. His appearance with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2017 expanded the number of birth nations and territories of MLB players to fifty-three.
Yet, as the essays in Baseball beyond Our Borders show, a nation's representation on a major league team is an insufficient measure by which baseball's international popularity should be gauged. For examples, in Taiwan, whose Little League World Series representatives won the title more than half the time during the late 20th century, a picture of the nation's first youth championship team is featured on the nation's currency. Throughout Japan, high school baseball is recognized as a spiritual discipline akin to the martial arts. And in the Dominican Republic the passion for baseball has been institutionalized through the establishment of academies run by major league teams.
In general the chapters deal with the origin, development, and character of the game in nineteen nations, a U.S. territory, and an Australian state. Primarily written by historians, anthropologists, lawyers, journalists, and former players, the essays in this revised and expanded version by Gmelch and Nathan also deal with the ways in which the World Baseball Classic has influenced international perception of the game.
The introduction of baseball into most nations resulted from American influence. Upon their return home from studies in the U.S., students took the game to Cuba, Venezuela, and China. American Protestant missionaries carried baseball to Korea and elsewhere, and Mormon missionaries accelerated its spread in New Zealand; an American businessman took the sport to Nicaragua; workers for American corporations introduced the sport in Columbia.
While the creation myths of baseball locate its Eden in the United States, the introduction of the sport into several nations occurred without direct reference to an American origin or in ways that altar aspects of the sport. Japanese sailors exported baseball to South Africa and Japanese emigres introduced the sport to Brazil. In Canada the origin of baseball was independent of U.S. influence, and its development there has differently included formal leagues for women. And in Finland, after having been exposed to baseball during travels to the United States, a native sports educator returned to Scandinavia and adapted the game for his countrymen. There, in fact, the pitcher stands adjacent to the batter, tossing the ball up to allow the batter to swing like a hitter of fungos.
Even though baseball basically enjoys common rules throughout the world—three strikes constitute an out, three outs complete a team's turn at bat, and players run the bases in a counterclockwise direction—the style of play and the cultural significance of the game differ from nation to nation. While the essays in Baseball beyond Our Borders deal with the prominence of baseball in respective nations, they also identify the challenges by other sports for primary popularity—notably futbol, basketball, cricket, and rugby command greater participation and fan allegiance in several countries. And they note the politicization of the sport in nations like Nicaragua, where the Sandinista government forbad baseball in schools, and in China, when during Mao's revolution and regime the game was officially dismissed because of its connection with Western conventions. Using baseball as different means of protest against Mao's forces, the soldiers following Sun Yat-sen embraced baseball because it helped to teach them how to throw a grenade.
Since the essays are arranged geographically, it is easy to discern distinct styles of play and decorum that characterize a region. In general in Asia, conflict with and complaints to umpires are rarely expressed. Players in Japan, for example, exhibit a refined sense of calm and respect throughout the game, uniformly revering umpires even making gestures to acknowledge obeisance. There, too, the pace of the game is slower and the number of players on a roster is larger than the double dozen in MLB.
By contrast, in the Caribbean flamboyant expressions typify players' responses to outstanding plays, a style of celebration demonstrated by Cuban players like Yasiel Puig who is well known for his dramatic bat flips following a home run. A similar celebration was displayed by the Havana Industriales when, following a first-inning homerun in the 2018 post-season Cuban series, all of the his teammates leapt out of the dugout and lined up from the on-deck circle to the foul pole to provide a hand-slapping receiving line for the slugger. While such a dramatic display of enthusiasm distinguishes Caribbean players' responses, different strategies are also employed throughout the game. For example, before a playoff game between the Caguas Criollos and Mayaguez Indios in Puerto Rico in 2016, Criollos manager Alex Cora told my students that the Puerto Rican style of play is different from that at Dodger Stadium near their college campus. With no score in the early innings of a game, he noted, a player would likely try to put down a sacrifice bunt following a lead-off single. Sure enough, in the bottom of the first when the Caguas lead-off hitter singled, the next batter sacrificed him to second.
In each of the twenty-three "innings" of Baseball beyond Our Borders, the authors score with observations and analyses that prompt personal reflections like those related to my students' experience, and they stimulate a desire for travel throughout the world to see and hear how baseball has become an international sport. Suffice it to say, the collection is comprehensive and engaging while it expands the horizons of our views about the international popularity and character of America's historic pastime.
George Gmelch and Daniel A. Nathan, editors. Baseball beyond Our Borders: An International Pastime. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2017. xxxii + 495. $24.95 (paper).
Copyright © 2018 by Joseph L. Price