In red
I want to talk about baseball and imperialist ideology. I am not referring to the atrocities that were committed -and allowed- in the game of the locals in the Baseball World Cup against the Cuban team. That’s a similar topic but I’m kind of an amateur historian and I prefer to talk about the past. I refer to The American Foreign Service Service Journal. The magazine is published in April 1932. Volume IX, number 4. It is a monthly publication of the American Diplomatic Service Association. The president of said association is Arthur Bliss Lane, who was minister plenipotentiary in the Nicaragua intervened by the US and who came to meet with General Augusto César Sandino, leader of the resistance against the dictatorship and against US intervention. Sandino would end up treacherously assassinated thanks to the tricks of this official.
Among the articles in the magazine caught my attention Playing the Other Fellows’ Game by retired Capt. Charles D. Baylis. Candidly, the text proudly expresses that in the half century that goes from 1882 to 1932 they have participated in “expeditions” in places as far apart as Chile, Egypt, Cuba, Nicaragua, the Philippines, China, Samoa, Guam, Argentina , Colombia, Haiti, Panama, Syria, Mexico, Santo Domingo, Puerto Rico, Korea, Abyssinia and Russia. The author highlights that the marines they work hard wherever they have gone to confront “the enemies of our country and protecting the citizens of our country on foreign shores” but, in addition, they “play hardball”. Soldiers participate in all branches of sports.
For Baylis, the BASEBALL, “it is the sport that best adapts to the tropics”. This is written without a hint of irony or sarcasm. Among the mandatory equipment worn by the marines it would seem that bats and balls take precedence. This is all part of the narrative that, wherever they go, the trust and esteem of the inhabitants is established. The soldiers are “missionaries” who carry on their shoulders the expansionist ideology of the USA. He baseball it then becomes a non-lethal weapon that makes it possible to establish friendly relations with the invaded populations. In the exchange, languages are learned thanks to questions about sports and in a short time people organize their own teams that, on many occasions, are directed by…marines. According to Baylis, they are believed to be “the ones who introduced baseball to Japan, the Philippines, Guam, Nicaragua, Panama, Cuba, Haiti, Santo Domingo, the Virgin Islands, and China. He curiously does not mention Puerto Rico.
The article expands on other regions and other sports. I remembered it while watching some games like Nicaragua or Colombia against the US. I began writing this short note shortly after Murakami hit a long drive off the fence giving Japan the win over Mexico. On today’s night that I finish it, the marines, I mean, the USA -who make the rules- to the formidable team of Japan. Certainly, it is easy to say that sport has nothing to do with “politics”. But you should not be delusional or seem so. International sporting events, such as the Olympic Games, are often used as a way to demonstrate the superiority of one nation or race over another. Remember Hitler at the Olympics in Berlin? Political leaders can use sport to increase their popularity and legitimacy. Sports teams can be a source of national pride and symbols of power. Funding for sports and teams often comes from government sources, and politicians can use this funding to gain voter support. And many times political activism comes into play. Athletes sometimes use their platform to promote political and social causes, and some sports have historically been associated with political movements, such as boxing and the civil rights movement in the United States. Let us remember the raised fists of Black Power in the Mexico Olympics (1968) or the performances of the Greatest, Muhammad Ali, in the ring and outside the ring.
Is sport another battlefield where social and political tensions are settled? Of course. Since before Captain Baylis wrote the note he reviewed.
Writer Rafael Acevedo holds the record for shutouts in the Sunday softball Marist League.
