Insights: Sports

Peter Gammons
Published in: April 1, 2000

Published March/April 2000

SPORTS The Melting Pot America's favorite Pastime Is Also Its Game of the Future By Peter Gammons In the final year of the twentieth century, Fidel Castro stood for the national anthem of the United States in Havana and mumbled along with the words alongside Major League Baseball Commisioner Bud Selig. Cuban exile Orlando (El Duque) Hernandez proved to be one of American baseball's 10 elite pitchers in leading the New York Yankees to the World Series. He shared the spotlight with a superstar closer from Panama, an $87 million center fielder from Puerto Rico, a colorful pitcher from Japan, and an infielder from Venezuela.   For a number of reasons that range from culture to gambling, Major League Baseball has long been second to the National Football League in the consciousness of the American sports fan. But as we turn from the twentieth century--whose most significant athlete was Jackie Robinson, who broke the racial line seven years before Brown v. Board of Education--to the twenty-first century, baseball maintains its place in American culture more than ever. It's a place that was so important throughout the twentieth century that no sport better reflects the immigration patterns of America's history or better represents its dream. Its Hall of Fame roster reads like an Ellis Island roll call--Yogi Berra, Lou Boudreau, Hank Greenberg, Ned Hanlon, Nap Lajoie, Phil Rizzuto, Hoyt Wilhelm, Carl Yastrzemski.   "Except for the Native American Indians, we all came here for the same reason," says Carlos Pena, a top Texas Rangers first-base prospect who moved from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, to Haverhill, Massachusetts, at the age of 15, then moved on to be a 3.6 engineering student in college and a first-round pro draft pick.   "From the Pilgims on, we've come here looking for the same dream, and we've all found that it's a heckuva lot tougher than we thought it would be. Which means we all have had to work a lot harder. That's all."   Just take a look at the American League's top 10 hitters for 1999. At the top was Boston Red Sox shortstop Nomar Garciaparra, half-Mexican, half-Egyptian, all-American. Then New Jersey-born Yankee Derek Jeter. Seven of the last eight on the list were born in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Cuba or Venezuela, and the eighth went to high school in Puerto Rico. In addition, the American League's most valuable player last year, Rangers catcher Pudge Rodriguez, is Puerto Rican; the game's best pitcher, AL Cy Young winner Pedro Martinez of the Boston Red Sox, is Dominican.   Baseball is the sport of choice of America's two fastest growing demographic groups--Hispanics and Asians. Within a year or three, there will be a baseball World Cup. Consider these possible matchups: U.S. (Baltimore Orioles' Mike Mussina) vs. South Korea (Los Angeles Dodgers' Chan Ho Park), Cuba (Orlando Hernandez) vs. the Dominican Republic (Pedro Martinez). And that's just a sampling.   From a marketing standpoint, the ongoing evolution of Hispanics as American baseball heroes has tremendous potential as we near the day when Hispanics become the largest ethnic group in the United States. Pro Player, which sells all licensed Major League Baseball products, lists its top-selling players for 1999: McGwire, Garciaparra, Sammy Sosa, Ken Griffey Jr., Jeter, Pedro Martinez. Quite a cross-section of American society.   At the end of last season, Boston Red Sox marketing folks discovered that their audience had changed dramatically, from the 30-and-over, woe-is-me obsessors of the past to a college-age boom similar to the crowds that flocked to Fenway Park in the 1970s. "It isn't marketing," says one front office executive. "It's Nomar and Pedro. Kids love those guys."   Anyone who has had the privilege of watching a playoff clincher in Havana between the Industriales and Las Isla knows that the level and mix of passion and knowledge found there can be matched in the United States only by fans at Yankee Stadium, Busch Stadium and Fenway Park. And that's closely matched by any Licey-Escogido street traffic series in Santo Domingo. And South Korea, says Omar Minaye, the New York Mets' assistant general manager and international director, "is just like Cuba and the Dominican."   In other words, you may think your neighbor is a fanatic when it comes to Mike Piazza or Mark McGwire, but in terms of per capita baseball hysteria, the leaders are the Dominican Republic, Cuba, the Republic of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and South Korea. South Korea? Chan Ho Park is the Dodgers' number two starter and one of the National League's best pitchers. Boston could have three South Koreans on its 2000 staff--pony-tailed lefty reliever Sang Lee, right-hander Jin Ho Cho and prized right-hander Sun Woo Kim.   How much does Sox management think of Kim? He had pitched in Fenway in a world junior tournament, took dirt from the Fenway mound home and signed a no-trade deal so the Red Sox couldn't send him to another team. And Seung Jun Song, a 19-year-old workhorse, is Boston's best Korean prospect, a hard thrower who had a 2.30 earned run average with 61 strikeouts in 55 innings pitched last season. "If Song were at Clemson," says one scout, "he'd be a high number one pick and command $2.5 million."     MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL 2000   This may well be the year when kids and older fans of most sports appreciate that baseball players are great athletes, not just a bunch of Ron Coomers who look like walk-ons from a Coor's Light commercial. For a generation, kids have had it drummed into their heads that basketball players are the athletic supermen of our time. But in 1994, when Michael Jordan temporarily retired from basketball to try baseball, he batted .202 in the Southern League and proved that not even the greatest athlete of his generation can hit.   There is no better indication of baseball's attraction to extraordinary young athletes than the shortstop position, which is why 2000 will be the Year of the Shortstop. The Seattle Mariners' Alex Rodriguez, 24, will be one of baseball's poster boys this season and, by November, a free agent who will become the highest-paid player in the history of the sport. But is he the best shortstop in the American League? The Red Sox would argue that the dashing, slashing Garciaparra, who plays as if he has no idea what the brakes are for and who's won a batting title and been MVP runner-up the last two seasons, is the best. The Yankees would argue Jeter, who has more hits after his first four full seasons than did Pete Rose or Ty Cobb and who they just offered a record seven-year, $118.5 million contract. No sport can even discuss the possibility of having three of the five best to ever play a position all going into their primes. Baseball can, and this will be the year people appreciate it.   This is the year baseball is revived in the Bay Area, as the 49ers, Raiders and the other non-baseball teams in that region slide into mediocrity. In San Francisco, the Giants, who have been poster boys for good performance, move into what could be the most spectacular new park in the sport. Built on the waterfront, looking out on the Bay Bridge, it has boat access and a neighborhood that is one of the hottest real estate markets in the city. Across the bridge in Alameda County, the Athletics have become one of the best young teams in baseball. With third baseman Eric Chavez, first baseman Jason Giambi, shortstop Miguel Tejada and ace pitcher Tim Hudson, the A's have assembled one of the American League's most feared teams on less than what the Dodgers will pay Kevin Brown and Shawn Green.   Three teams that should awaken at the start of this century: the Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago White Sox and Philadelphia Phillies. The Pirates have gradually been on the rise, albeit in the shadow of the Steelers and Penguins. But as their neighbors have slipped, Pittsburgh has put together one of the National League's best pitching staffs with Kris Benson, Jason Schmidt, Francisco Cordova and Todd Ritchie. The White Sox have slowly rebuilt from their dismantling at the time of the 1995 strike, despite the public vilification of owner Jerry Reinsdorf. And the Phillies are building on last season, with young slugger Pat Burrell joining third base superstar Scott Rolen, as pitcher Curt Schilling recovers from off-season shoulder surgery and gives them five exciting months after his expected May return.   The Detroit Tigers will open a new ballpark with Juan Gonzalez, two-time MVP. The Reds are planning their own new-park debut in 2003 with the dream of Griffey coming home. The Expos will try to prove that Montreal can enjoy baseball without subtitles as new owner Jeff Loria plans to build a park and excitement with Dominican standout Vladimir Guerrero, an MVP waiting to happen. The Kansas City Royals have one of the best young teams in the field, with center fielder Carlos Beltran and second baseman Carlos Febles. Florida Marlins owner John Henry, with a dangerous array of young talent rebuilt by general manager Dave Dombrowski after Wayne Huizenga stripped the 1997 champions, is trying to find a place to play in the Miami area where they can be appreciated.   And while we think we know which five teams have a chance of playing in the World Series--the Yankees, Mets, Braves, Indians and Red Sox--we also know that after a century and its final decade dominated by the Yankees, anything can happen. And might.   Peter Gammons is a baseball commentator for ESPN.