Answers: Baseball beyond the U.S.

In September, Japan’s Shohei Ohtani became the first player to reach the landmark of 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a Major League Baseball season in the U.S. Last December, Ohtani signed the biggest contract in sporting history, a ten-year deal worth $700 million with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Ohtani’s unprecedented success inspired me to explore the extent of baseball’s popularity outside the U.S. This quiz examines the impact of baseball across the Americas, East Asia and the Pacific and the role of colonialism (not just American colonialism) in promoting what’s often referred to in the U.S. as ‘America's pastime’.

November 2024 update: Shohei Ohtani was named the National League Most Valuable Player, his third MVP award, after helping the Los Angeles Dodgers secure the World Series title.

Questions

1) Babe Ruth headlined a star-studded U.S. team that visited this country in 1934 and played to packed stands. While baseball was already established in this country, the visit gave a big boost to the sport. By 1936 a professional league was formed in the country. Which country?

Japan. More here and here. The sport was introduced in the 1870s by American educator Horace Wilson, who taught at an elite school that later became Tokyo University. Wilson was among those recruited by Imperial Japan to understand the western world after the Meiji Restoration of 1868 ended centuries of isolation.

Before the American team with Major League baseball stars visited in 1934, tours featuring Japanese American players organised by Kenichi Zenimura helped boost the sport in Japan. Zenimura, known as the ‘Father of Japanese American Baseball’ also helped arrange a successful tour of Black American players to Japan in 1927. This was at a time when racism barred both Japanese Americans and African Americans from MLB. A Black player from Louisiana, James Bonner made history by taking part in the inaugural season of Japan’s professional league in 1936. This was 11 years before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier by becoming the first African American to play in modern MLB in 1947.

Holding his own against the visiting Americans in 1934 was 17-year-old Eiji Sawamura, who became a major star during the initial years of Japan’s professional league. The baseball pitcher was conscripted for the China-Japan conflict and became known for hurling grenades accurately at the enemy. He was killed in combat during World War II.

In 1964 Masanori Murakami became the first Japanese player to make it to MLB but his stay was short-lived because of a contract dispute with his Japanese club and pressure on him to return home. The bad blood over the dispute led to Japanese players staying away from MLB for three decades. Hideo Nomo broke the taboo in 1995.

2) This former South American leader wanted to be a professional baseball player as a teenager. Coming from a rural background, he joined the military at age 17 because it offered the possibility of moving to the capital and being viewed by talent scouts. He later said an injury ended his baseball dreams. While President, he was known for calling the national team manager to discuss tactics for the World Baseball Classic tournament. Who? (Hint: U.S. critic)

Hugo Chavez, former Venezuelan President. More here, here, here, here and here. The second largest number of foreign players in MLB are from Venezuela (after Dominican Republic)

3) Which country has the second-highest number of players in Major League Baseball outside the United States?

Dominican Republic. The sport was introduced to the country in the second half of the 19th century by visitors from Cuba. It got a further boost during the U.S. military occupation of the country from 1916 to 1924. More here, here and here.

December 2024 update: Juan Soto from the Dominican Republic has eclipsed Shohei Ohtani by landing the largest deal in professional sports history. Soto and the New York Mets have agreed on a 15-year, $765 million contract.

4) Through the 1970s and 1980s, low wages and close proximity to the U.S. attracted American companies to this country to manufacture baseballs. At the time, this country was the largest manufacturer of baseballs globally. Political instability prompted the companies to move out in the late eighties and early nineties. Manufacturing has shifted to Costa Rica as well as China. Name the country that lost out on baseball manufacturing.

Haiti. My earlier quiz on Haiti's Long History of Instability here.

5) Baseball is the most popular sport in this Central American country, unlike its neighbours where football dominates. It hosted the amateur World Cup in 1972, finishing third behind winners Cuba and runner-up USA. The 1970s was the country’s heyday in the sport, as it produced five MLB players. Which country?

Nicaragua. The main stadium in the capital Managua was renamed in 1998 after Dennis Martinez, the first player from Nicaragua to make it to MLB. A new stadium named after him was completed in 2017. But Martinez’s name was removed a year later after he opposed President Daniel Ortega’s crackdown on political opponents and civil society.

6) Which team became the first from outside the U.S. to win the baseball World Series in 1992? It repeated the feat in 1993. It remains the only non-American winner of the World Series.

Toronto Blue Jays

7) Baseball was introduced at the Summer Olympics in 1992 (only for men). Since then it’s been part of the Olympics in 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2020. Which country won the gold medal three out of six times? (it’s not the U.S.)

Cuba. Baseball was introduced to the island in the 1860s by Cubans returning after studying in the U.S. Its popularity surged rapidly and Spanish colonial authorities banned baseball in 1869, with Cubans increasingly rejecting bullfighting. Spain’s defeat in the Spanish-American war of 1898 and the subsequent expansion of U.S. influence accelerated the growth of the sport. Cubans helped spread baseball to other parts of Latin America.

Fidel Castro also backed the sport, though he insisted that players should maintain amateur status and abolished the country’s professional league. Cubans were barred from competing in professional leagues abroad. A large number of baseball players defected and some of them made their mark in MLB. After an ailing Fidel Castro handed over power to his brother Raul and the country took tentative steps towards private enterprise, players were allowed to take part in foreign leagues (but not MLB) in 2013.

8) Which set of players were allowed to be part of the Cuban national team for the first time (since the Fidel Castro-led revolution) at the 2023 World Baseball Classic?

Cuban players in Major League Baseball. But some prominent Cuban names in MLB were either not invited or declined to be part of the national team. More here and here. The event saw the Cuban team play in Miami, the hub of anti-Castro Cuban Americans.

President Barack Obama watched a baseball game in Havana during his historic visit to Cuba in 2016. In December 2018 MLB and the Cuban Baseball Federation reached a deal to allow Cuban players to sign up for MLB clubs but the Trump administration cancelled that agreement. Another deal in 2022 between the Cuban federation and baseball’s governing body gave Cubans playing abroad greater control over their earnings.

9) Which European country won the baseball World Cup for the first time in 2011, powered by players from the Caribbean islands of Curacao and Aruba?

The Netherlands. In 1986 Aruba separated from the Netherlands Antilles, a group of Dutch Caribbean islands. Aruba is an autonomous territory under the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The island fields separate teams for many sporting competitions including the Olympics. But players from the island have represented the Netherlands in baseball events such as the World Baseball Classic.

Curacao was part of the Netherlands Antilles until its dissolution in 2010. It is now an autonomous territory under the Netherlands, a status similar to Aruba. This year the baseball federations of Aruba and Curacao announced plans to compete under a single name in major tournaments, including the World Baseball Classic.

Map Courtesy Google Maps. Curacao is located 60 kilometres north of the coast of Venezuela. Baseball’s origins there are attributed to visitors from Dominican Republic and Venezuela. Aruba is just 24 km away from Venezuela and the sport was introduced there by Venezuelan immigrants and sailors. In recent years, Aruba and Curacao have struggled to handle the influx of tens of thousands of Venezuelans fleeing economic and political turmoil back home.

10) MLB’s season opener has been held multiple times in Japan. But this year it was held in another Asian country for the first time as the Los Angeles Dodgers took on the San Diego Padres. While an American missionary is believed to have brought the game to this country in the early 20th century, baseball was given a boost by Japanese colonialists. The country’s domestic league is most known for its raucous cheering culture, with fans singing fight songs for each batter as cheerleaders dance.

South Korea. Unusually for a Japanese player, Shohei Ohtani is a popular figure in South Korea. As for North Korea, the Kim dynasty has largely discouraged baseball.

11) Japanese colonialists introduced baseball to this island in the early 20th century. It gained in popularity under Japanese rule. A mixed-race school team made up of native islanders and Japanese settlers was hailed for a surprise run all the way to the final of the national school tournament in Japan in 1931 (the 2014 film Kano based on the school team was a box office hit). Baseball remains the island’s top sport. Where?

Taiwan. The island dominated the Little League World Series for children from its first win in 1969 until its 17th in 1996. The winning streak was a point of pride at a time when the island was expelled from the United Nations (1971) and most countries shifted diplomatic allegiance to the People’s Republic of China. Amid Taiwan’s repeated wins, the Little League World Series controversially banned foreign teams for a year in 1975. The players were largely Taiwanese and the wins emboldened Taiwanese independence activists to engage in acts of defiance against the authoritarian Kuomintang government dominated by exiles from mainland China who had fled from the Communists in 1949. As Taiwan became a democracy and moved away from Chiang Kai-shek, his image was removed from most banknotes. The 500 New Taiwan Dollar bill now features the image of Little League baseball players celebrating.

Taiwan’s team lost in the Little League World Series final in 2024. Cheerleaders are part of the baseball fabric in Taiwan as well.

2024 also saw a school set up for ethnic Koreans in Japan winning the country’s prestigious ‘Koshien’ high school baseball competition, going one up on the achievements of the mixed-race school team from colonised Taiwan that made it to the final in 1931. South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol was among those who congratulated the winning school.

My previous quiz on the economic and strategic importance of Taiwan below.

12) Japanese colonialists brought baseball to this Pacific island nation in the 1920s. After a local all-star team defeated a team of Japanese administrators in 1928, inter-racial competitions were banned. Despite having less than 20,000 residents this country has a professional league and a creditable record in regional baseball competitions. Which country?

Palau.

13) A lifelong baseball fan, he ordered that baseball stadiums in Japan should be restored to playing condition immediately, when the U.S. occupied the country after World War II. He saw the sport as a way to reduce tension and limit anti-American sentiment. He also persuaded an American team to tour Japan in 1949. Who?

General Douglas MacArthur.