Baseball: Not Just America’s Pastime
After recently watching DVDs of the different World Series of my lifetime, I couldn’t help but notice the transformation the game of baseball has undergone in the last 20 years. The 1990s were home to some of my all time favorite players- Paul Molitor, Randy Johnson, Curt Schilling, etc. This was a game which was, to a large degree, dominated by white American players.
Fast-forward to the present day, and we find a game that has changed — from strictly America’s pastime to a global phenomenon.
Travel back to 1947 where it all began, when a black man from Cairo, Georgia signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers, and birthed the acceptance of diversity in Major League Baseball. Jackie Robinson bolted into the game with speed and athleticism that nobody in that era had ever seen before. Today, you see players like Curtis Granderson and Carl Crawford mirroring Jackie in their play on the field.
We now see that international players have transformed the game into something completely revolutionary. The Dominican Republic began to be the centerpiece of international baseball talent, and paved the way for other Latin American nations to get in on the act. Countries like Venezuela, Mexico, Cuba, and Curacao all are now home to baseball players playing professionally in America.
Major League Baseball is home to the best baseball players in the entire world. Fifteen years ago, I would have considered that statement to be false. But now, with an array of nations taking the spotlight, the talent pool is nearly endless.
With the foreign players come foreign techniques, which serve as innovative steps in improving the game of baseball. Few players had successfully made a living off of a submarine-style pitching motion until Byung-Hyun Kim became one of the most dominant closers in the game during the late 90s and early 2000s. Now, you see submarine-type hurlers on almost every club.
Then, in 2007, Japanese superstar Daisuke Matsuzaka comes to the Red Sox only to wow the nation with a pitch never seen before, the “gyro” ball. Pretty soon the gyro ball will be the next slider, and join the repertoire of most major league pitchers.
In this generation, we have been blessed enough to witness two of the greatest baseball players of all time. Each is from a different continent, and neither one is a native-born American.
St. Louis Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols plays like a man among boys, and has evolved in to arguably the greatest hitter of all time. The Dominican Republic native owns the game of baseball, and leads the brigade of Domincan players dominating Major League Baseball.
The other superstar has embodied a different type of baseball domination. Seattle Mariners stalwart Ichiro Suzuki sprinted to America from Japan in 2001, and has become the most feared baserunner in the game. His hand-eye coordination, combined with his blazing speed and killer arm in right field, have earned him numerous All-Star appearances, as well as MVP of the 2007 All-Star Game. His quirky style of play became the blueprint for many Japanese players, and helped to pave the way for the current crop of Japanese-born players entering the ranks of Major League Baseball.
The popularity of baseball continues to grow worldwide, and the influx of top-level players from across the globe ensures that Major League Baseball games feature the greatest baseball players the world has to offer. And it is those players and their greatness which helps to ensure the continued growth of the game, both here in the United States and elsewhere.
Great article and a fresh perspective on MLB! I wrote my dissertation on media portrayals of MLB athletes of differing race and nationality, but have never given a lot of thought to the way international athletes impact the way the game is played.