1. America‟s Pastime 1
HST 306 Paper 2
Jacob García
March 28, 2014
Making Baseball Truly “America‟s Pastime”
Despite the overwhelming popularity of the National Football League, baseball has
always been regarded as “America‟s pastime.” The true American symbol in which young boys
dream of reaching the Big Leagues, for over 100 years baseball has been America‟s summertime
obsession. Dave Zirin, however, notes that on Opening Day of 2005, Latin American players
accounted for nearly 25 percent of all players, and over the next 20 years that number will surely
double (Zirin, 49). Taking such a statistic into account, it is easy to see how baseball has
continued to transform into a mix of cultures. Yet many still cling to the ideal that Abner
Doubleday created baseball and made it uniquely and strictly American. Simply put, baseball is
not uniquely American, as different individuals, groups and cultures have participated in baseball
since its invention. By using baseball as a means for cultural expression and pride, these diverse
groups continue to make “America‟s Pastime” their own pastime.
A predominant example of how different groups and individuals have made baseball their
own is the simple observation of in-game peculiarities and styles of play specific to a certain
group of baseball players. While Major League Baseball at the time of integration (and even
today) continued to glamorize the home-run as the true symbol of manliness, African Americans
like Jackie Robinson and Satchel Paige had alternate visions.
As Montye Fuse and Keith Miller state in their article “Jazzing the Basepaths,”
“Distinguishing their sport from its white counterpart, Negro League veterans describe their play
as „colorful,‟ „unorthodox,‟ „showboating,‟ „smart baseball,‟ „inside baseball,‟ „unwritten

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baseball,‟ and „tricky baseball‟” (Fuse, 122). Jackie Robinson and other black baseball players
engaged in what they labeled “trickeration” on the basepaths, as they would routinely “tag up”
and score from second base on afly ball to the outfield or stretch a single into a double by taking
a big turn at first base to draw a throw behind them (Fuse, 128). In Robinson‟s case, he created
such a distraction—subtle fakes at stealing or darting off the base and then retreating—that
opposing pitchers became far too preoccupied with his base running tactics and lost focus on the
batter. As Vic Raschi confessed after the 1949 World Series, “I had just never seen anything like
[Robinson‟s feints from third base] before… He broke my concentration and I paid more
attention to him than to Hodges. He beat me more than Hodges [did]” (Fuse, 119). Likewise,
Satchel Paige becamerenowned for his knee-breaking flurry of off-speed pitches, on which he
commented, “„I got bloopers, loopers, and droopers. I got a jump ball, a bee ball, a screw ball, a
wobbly ball, a whipsy-dipsy-do, a hurry-up ball, a nothin‟ ball and a bat dodger‟” (Fuse, 124).
The self-expressive on-field and in-game style of play was not limited to African
Americans. In fact, the Asahi Tigers, a Japanese-Canadian baseball team, won numerous
championships in the 1930s by adopting a style that they referred to as “brain ball.” The style
featured strategic bunting and wizard-like defense to conceal their lack of hitting prowess
(Sleeping Tigers). However, solely focusing on in-game strategies and subtleties of these
different groups disregards the foundation for this course that was set by Dave Zirin: sports are
far more than simply a game.
With such a premise in mind, different groups and individuals made “America‟s pastime”
their own not only by forming alternate methods of playing the game, but also by instilling a
different cultural atmosphere around the game. As is stated in the article “Mexican American
Baseball,” “Baseball offered a means by which players and spectators constructed an „imagined

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community‟ through a shared sense of nationality in the Mexican patriotic celebrations, Mexican
musical performances, and Mexican food stands that predominated during and after Athletics
matches” (Alamillo, 99). Furthermore, groups such as the northern Oregon Japanese community
created an arena of social networking by participating in baseball: “Baseball‟s value to the
Japanese of northern Oregon clearly went well beyond competition. In a region where their
communities often lay distant from one another, the games brought people together for the first
time” (Regalado, 83).On many occasions, these postgame social events resulted in the
intermingling of players and women, which in turn led to lifelong connections and friendships,
and sometimes even marriages (Regalado, 83).Ultimately, these diverse groups made baseball,
“America‟s pastime,” their own by creating relationships that maynot have been existent
otherwise and by incorporating culture and heritage into the game-day festivities. These groups
had to engage in such cultural practices, for if they did not, they would be completely vulnerable
to the difficulties of American assimilation.
Ranging from Roberto Clemente speaking Spanish to the English-speaking press after the
Pirates won the World Series to lesser-known players speaking Spanish in a game against white
counterparts to disguise their plays and strategies, different cultures increasingly put their own
subtle twist on baseball in America. But for what purpose? The unfortunate reality is that Latino,
African American, Japanese and many other groups had to create a baseball environment for
themselves that was more friendly, welcoming, and familiar than that of the rest of American
society. Latinos were met with a hostile environment that demanded the player to assimilate and
learn English as fast as inhumanly possible. Failure to do so would represent a “stubborn and
stupid” Latino who refused to change.

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As a result, Latinos made baseball their own by creating an environment that fostered
respect and self-confidence for their community. José Alamillo agrees when he states, “Within
this context [a racially restricted environment], community baseball clubs provided a
counterpoint to grim material realities encountered at work and community, and team members
could potentially attain social status, respect, dignity and realize their own „field of dreams‟”
(Alamillo, 87). Baseball was essentially a form of protest—a protest against the claim of white
superiority and a protest against the stereotype of Latinos and other cultures as being impulsive,
animalistic, unrefined, and unable to adapt to the American way of life. Whether it was through
simply beating white teams with ease by using unique styles of play or protests against a racist
system (such as Felipe Aluo taking a stand against a lack of Latino representation), different
groups have made the claim that baseball will always be more than strictly “America‟s pastime.”
Many individuals laud Major League Baseball for being so diverse, unique and accepting
of different cultures. Their rhetoric makes it seem like they have supported the efforts of these
different groups in making baseball their own every step of the way. One glimpse at history,
however, and one sees otherwise. Other than the obvious discrimination against people of color
by denying them entrance into “America‟s pastime,” there are and continue to be examples of an
unwillingness to expand baseball‟s influence.Such atrocities include Major League Baseball‟s
transnational academies that remove teenagers from school, attempt to prepare them for the
Major Leagues, and discard them as commodities if they arenot talented enough. There have
been insensitive sports radio commentators like Larry Kreuger, who blamed the struggles of the
San Francisco Giants on the “„brain-dead Caribbean hitters hacking at slop nightly‟” (Zirin, 61).
Such discriminatory remarks continue to happen today. Bryce Harper, an American born 21-
year-old superstar of the Washington Nationals, receives nothing but praise for his hard-nosed

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and gritty style of play. The similar style of play of Yasiel Puig, a 23-year-old Cuban superstar
for the Dodgers, is criticized as “reckless,” “childlike,” and “detrimental to team chemistry.”
Latinos, African Americans, Japanese and other cultures have made baseball their own by
adopting unique styles of playand imposing their own cultural traditions, and by using baseball
as a platform to protest discrimination. But the sad truth is that they should not have had to make
baseball “their own.” If baseball were truly “America‟s pastime” and truly lived up to the tenets
of the American Dream, then there would be much more of an effort to be inclusive, rather than
exclusive. Yet by making the game their own, these different groups have challenged the
lingering discriminatory thought that is sadly still a part of baseball.