Hello, I’m a crow.
There was such a sports event two days ago. In the final of the 5th world baseball classic (WBC) held in Miami, USA, the Japanese team defeated the last champion American team 3-2 to win the championship for the third time.
The course of the game was quite exciting. In the eighth inning, the United States approached the score to 2:3, and the Japanese team was in a critical situation.At the crucial moment, Shohei Ohtani, the star pitcher of the Japanese team, stepped forward and struck out his club teammate trout of the United States in the ninth inning to end the game.
However, no matter how wonderful it is, it is only wonderful for a small number of people, and it has nothing to do with most people. Even if you are a sports fan, it is estimated that you will only be puzzled by the news about the baseball classic from time to time-what game is this? Why should we pay attention?
This is no one’s problem, most people all over the world are like this, and the classic baseball game is good.No matter the world series of Major League Baseball, it can’t be a world-class sports event, but it can only sprout in some countries or regions where baseball is hot.
Traditionally, the top six baseball players in the world are the United States, Cuba, Venezuela, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan Province, China. In fact, the strength of baseball in Taiwan Province has declined seriously in the last 30 years, and there is no advantage in confronting European countries. South Korea’s baseball is also getting worse year by year, and the last three WBC games have been a round of swimming home. It is really strong, that is, the four brothers of the American and Japanese ancient committees.
Of course, whether there are six boys or four boys, the limitations of baseball can be seen at a glance: it can only flourish in the United States and countries or regions with very close ties with the United States, and there is no chance outside this circle.
During the baseball classic, the European region was calm. Although MLB made great efforts to promote it, it was not successful in other countries except in the Czech Republic.
Some people in China spare no effort to promote it.MLB held 38 offline games in 16 cities in China, many of which went to first-class universities such as Tsinghua University and Wuhan University. Tik Tok, Bili Bili, Aauto Quicker, Weibo, Wuxing Sports and other major platforms are also broadcasting hard, so the ratings are not to mention.
In the end, MLB boasted that the ratings of this game broke the record, but as long as you open the article, you will find that the places that broke the record are baseball "old areas" such as the United States, Japan and South Korea, and it will be hehe in other places.
Strange to say,Baseball is highly bound to American popular culture.For example, just in 2011, Aaron Sorkin wrote a screenplay, and Brad Pitt, jonah hill, robin wright Pan (the house of cards woman) and "Star-Lord" Chris Palate starred in a blockbuster.Moneyball., is a pure baseball movie.
The global box office of this blockbuster is close to US$ 80 million, and its influence in China is not small, with a high score of 8.3 in Douban and more than 100,000 reviewers.
However, its achievements are not ranked first in the history of American baseball movies, and Legend No.42 and League of Pink are both over 100 million at the box office.
However, watching movies belongs to watching movies and watching baseball? Forget it. Baseball movies can be circled, but baseball still can’t.
(Japanese dramas and cartoons are often based on baseball as the "daily plot". For example, Ma Zhizhun, a famous ACG playwright and known as the "big devil", often starts a baseball game without a word in his works. As a result, it turns out that the two fist products of Japanese animation and American blockbusters can’t help baseball really go out of the circle.)
We have a deep understanding of the strength of American cultural hegemony, butSuch an American national sport has been vigorously promoted by mainstream propaganda. Why can’t it make a splash all over the world?
This has to start from history.
When it comes to the development of baseball in the United States, we have to mention the Civil War.
Before the Civil War, baseball was a unique pastime in new york., leaving new york, few people know. No wonder, when I left new york, most of the United States was still in the countryside, and the sports carried out in the village were nothing more than riding horses and wrestling …
(It’s not interesting to draw a gun when playing ball.)
In particular, the southern United States knows nothing about baseball, with the exception of New Orleans, Louisiana, where there are 12 baseball teams, but they all go to new york to play every year.
With the outbreak of war, the situation changed.
As Crow said in his previous article about football,Sports and nationalism always go both ways.. New york’s baseball club became a collaborator in war mobilization. While encouraging players to enlist in the army, they publicized and urged others to follow their example:"It’s better to join the army than to wander the streets!"
New york baseball star Otto W. Parrison was appointed captain of the 9th Infantry Regiment and took part in the Battle of Antietam. All 91 members of the Brooklyn Nine Sky Team joined the Northern Army.
When these people went to war, they also brought baseball to America.
The soldiers began to play baseball almost immediately. Legions from new york are naturally the most active players, because they are most familiar with the game. The first organized intra-military baseball game was held on July 2, 1861, when a team from the 71st new york Corps beat the Washington National Amateur Club 41-13 in a park opposite the White House.
However, the strength of the teams rose and fell very quickly, especially during the war.
In that month, the 71st Legion, which won the battle, went to the front to take part in the battle of Burlang, with heavy casualties. The best baseball players were either seriously injured or killed. So in the rematch held in 1862, the Washington Nationals successfully retaliated 28-13.
These impromptu competitions are very common and often attract a large number of viewers and newspaper reports.On Christmas Day in 1862, the 165th new york Volunteer Corps competed with another team composed of soldiers from other states, which was said to have attracted 40,000 spectators.
Organized activities like this help popularize the sport among soldiers. Colonel Mei Sen Whiting Taylor explained that by 1863, baseball was all the rage in the Potomac army, and baseball players were everywhere in the camp, and there were games on almost every street.
Therefore, officers take advantage of the situation to use baseball for official purposes, encourage soldiers to ease the monotonous barracks life by playing ball, and supplement training activities. They also hope to use these competitions to cultivate friendship and teamwork spirit between men, and they will soon be asked to fight together on the battlefield.
The Civil War also helped promote baseball in the south.At the beginning of the war, due to the better organization and command of the Confederate army, a large number of inexperienced northern officers and men were captured.These big brothers need entertainment when they are prisoners of war, so they began to play baseball in the prison camp.
At first glance, the officers and men in the south, yo, this game is quite interesting, and they have started to learn to play baseball.
John ·GB· Adams, a famous American civil war hero, discovered this point. In his memoirs, he wrote:"We (the soldiers of the North Army) will sit on the river bank and watch their (the soldiers of the South Army) game. The distance is too close. We can understand every movement. If they play well, we will applaud them."
However, it is difficult for southerners to get baseball and bats, so they have to turn to temporary equipment. Their bats are usually made of wooden boards or fences, and the ball "may just be a walnut wrapped in yarn."
By the end of the Civil War, these baseball-loving soldiers returned to their hometown and brought baseball to the whole country.
It is conceivable that such a movement, which was popularized on a large scale in the civil war, has what significance for Americans.
As a result, the drama of sports and politics going in both directions was staged again.
In the second half of the 19th century, as an "English sport", football was quickly brought to every corner of the world by British expatriate workers and international students sent to Britain.The United States is no exception. Immigrants from Europe have set up football clubs in various places.
Nationalists and the baseball industry quickly United. For American nationalists, after the civil war, it is very important to unite the North and the South and rebuild American identity. They adopted two orientations,One is to separate the connection between American culture and British and European culture; The second is to establish the common culture of the immigrants in the New World and form the shared experience.
Therefore, in order to establish their own sense of identity, they regard Britain as an unwelcome "other", and British culture bears the brunt of the "other" culture rejected by Americans, and gradually forms the imagination of the group by comparing with other cultures.
In the field of sports,On the one hand, American nationalists reject and resist football popular in Britain and Europe, on the other hand, they are trying to shape baseball that can embody the "national spirit and national symbol". By creating myths, creating heroes and building history, baseball has become the "national ball" of the United States and the symbol and pride of the "American nation".
This is not a theory that crows are careless about their hearts. That’s exactly what Americans do.
Speaking of Spalding, I believe that people who love playing basketball will be familiar with it. But when it comes to the founder of this brand,Al SpaldingPersonally, you may not be familiar with it. This man is the best example of the combination of American fanatical nationalism and baseball.
Al Spalding was a baseball star. In the 1970s, he was the greatest pitcher in American professional baseball. After retiring, he became the president of the Boston team.
At that time, many people in the United States had studied baseball.According to the research of historian and sports journalist Henry chadwick, baseball originated from the English round-the-field ball and became a modern baseball after being improved by Americans.
Scholars of later generations also confirmed that what chadwick said was true by consulting a large number of documents and visiting.
But for American nationalists at that time, this statement was tantamount to digging a grave: "Our great national baseball was actually invented by the old colonial British Empire?"
Spalding said he couldn’t stand it.Although Spalding and chadwick have a very good personal relationship, this does not prevent his old man from saying that chadwick was born in England and is not an American in essence.
And in order to completely locate the origin of baseball in the United States,Spalding mobilized his own resources to set up a "Special Baseball Committee" in 1905 to collect information from the people and verify who invented baseball.
Of course, this Committee has no academic rigor, and people come with tasks. Spalding went out in person during the Committee interview.Only by acknowledging that baseball originated in the United States can it be appointed as a Committee member.
Finally, seven former athletes and sports reporters were selected. Spalding called them "having a high reputation in baseball and being an unquestionable authority on baseball knowledge" and appointed his friend Mills as the chairman.
However, there is no information that can prove that baseball originated in the United States after collecting data for several years.
Just as Spalding was about to give up, the committee received a letter from Denver miner Abner Graves.The letter said that baseball was invented by American civil war hero Abner Doubleday.
DoburdayGraduated from West Point Military Academy, he was an outstanding civil war hero. He took part in the First World War of the Civil War in Sumter Fort, and even more glorious, he fought bravely in Gettysburg, repelling pickett’s charge.
For Spalding, an American hero like Dobrday is the ideal founder of baseball. But there’s only one problem,This letter is obviously a small composition without any evidence.
That doesn’t matter, just it! In March 1908, the "Special Baseball Committee" announced its findings, declaring: "First, baseball originated in the United States. Second: According to the best evidence available so far, baseball was invented by Dobrday! "
Funnily enough, Graves, the engineer who wrote to the Committee, seems to be abnormal.In 1924, at the age of 90, he had a paranoid schizophrenia attack, thinking that his wife was going to poison herself, so he killed her first.He was acquitted of insanity and spent the rest of his life in a mental hospital.
It can be said that the American national game originated in the United States and was determined by a mental patient.
Spalding, however, is not mentally retarded or mentally ill. Of course, he knows the truth, but he doesn’t care at all. In a letter to Boston sports reporter Tim Munan, he clearly stated:"Our ancient American baseball must have an American father."
Graves, a mental patient, even made these remarks in that letter:"I’d rather Uncle Sam declared war on England than admit that baseball was invented by the British!"
As can be seen from the above story, Americans closely relate baseball to the unique national personality and historical development of the United States through fabricated and fictional myths, anecdotes and development history of baseball, andBaseball is regarded as a typical product of American exceptionalism, which marks the division between the United States and its European descent.Then the export of this sport is naturally not important.
After all, old Spalding himself said:"It is difficult for British people who have never breathed free air like American citizens to appreciate baseball, which represents American nationality."
Moreover, in those days, even if the United States wanted to export culture to the outside world, it could not do it at all.
What was the anti-British sentiment of Americans at that time?In 1849, Macready, a British national treasure Shakespeare actor, went to new york Astor Opera Theatre to perform, which aroused widespread resentment among the American people. Someone posted a message in the street, which read-"Is it the British or the Americans who rule this city?"
Some people even bought hundreds of tickets for the top floor of Astor Opera House and shouted "shame, shame!" by throwing rotten eggs, potatoes, apples, lemons and shoes on the stage. The slogan,Turn Shakespeare’s play into a pantomime.
On May 10th, tens of thousands of demonstrators surrounded the theater. The police were understaffed and had to call in the militia. The demonstrators were extremely angry when they saw the militia armed with live ammunition.Someone shouted: "You have the guts to shoot!" The militia said, I have never heard of such a request as yours in my life. So he really shot.
Nearly 30 people were killed and more than 200 people were injured in the police and militia.So I feel funny when I see someone say that the Boxer Rebellion is blind. What is blind xenophobia? Americans, this is blind xenophobia.
Unlike today’s impression of the United States, in the second half of the 19th century, the United States was far from being a great empire, but at most it was a regional power. At that time, the British Empire ruled the world.
Presumably, the Boxer Rebellion will not appear in the "empire", and only in countries that are angry with imperialism will the people have an uprising and resistance in the form of the Boxer Rebellion.
As mentioned above, football can be spread all over the world, and the dominance of the British Empire is indispensable. It is precisely because the British emperor has invested in factories all over the world that all countries have sent people to study in Britain. Only British workers have the opportunity to work all over the world, and their hobbies and entertainment can affect those places and expose people there to football.
At that time, the United States did not have this condition at all. There were not enough industries distributed around the world, and not many people would study in the United States.
Why are baseball so popular in Cuba and Venezuela?Because the two brothers were one of the few countries that were within the sphere of influence of the United States at that time.
Baseball was introduced to Cuba in the 1960s by Cuban students returning from American universities and American sailors in the country’s ports. Cuban student Nemisio Guillo established the first baseball team in Cuba.
At that time, Cuba also staged a drama of two sports competitions.The Spaniards who colonized Cuba banned baseball and asked Cubans to go to the bullfight to show their loyalty to Spain.
Baseball was also accepted by supporters of the Cuban independence movement in those days.It has become a symbol of resistance to Spanish colonization in the field of sports.
Behind the struggle between the two sports is also the battle between the two countries. When the United States defeated Spain in the Spanish-American War in 1898, it completely expelled the Spanish forces and turned Cuba into a protectorate of the United States, baseball swept away the remnants of bullfighting and completely became a national sport in Cuba.
At the beginning of the 20th century, American oil companies entered Venezuela, and it was American oil workers who popularized baseball among Venezuelan workers.
After the Meiji Restoration, Japan had a close relationship with the United States. At the end of the 19th century, baseball was introduced to Japan from the United States, thus occupying a dominant position in Japan. At that time, Taiwan Province and Korea were both Japanese colonies, so baseball entered. After World War II, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan Province became more closely linked with the United States, and baseball developed there.
In fact, at the end of 19th century and the beginning of 20th century, China was also one of the countries greatly influenced by the United States, and baseball started very early in China.
There are baseball teams in famous universities in Tsinghua, Yanjing, St. John’s, Fudan and Nankai. After the Revolution of 1911, baseball was listed as the official competitive event of the National Games and other events. The China baseball team also competed with Japanese and Filipino teams on the stage of the Far East Games, and performed well.
The development of baseball in Taiwan Province in the future is also related to the overall development of baseball in China in this era.
It is very interesting that the popularization of baseball among the people in China is closely related to the revolutionary army.
Around 1940, baseball was particularly popular in Liu Bocheng’s No.129 Division, and special youth baseball teams and official competitions were organized.
Liu Bocheng attaches great importance to military sports and thinks that sports can assist military training. He especially advocated the troops to play baseball, because playing baseball can greatly exercise the arm strength, which is helpful for throwing grenades, and the equipment is simple and inexpensive, and it can also cultivate the teamwork ability among soldiers.
After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, baseball was regarded as a military sport, and it was considered to have a special role in training physical strength and eyesight, cultivating soldiers’ brave and enterprising revolutionary heroism, agile and flexible movements, quick and decisive judgment and coordination system, so it called for the promotion of baseball in grass-roots companies.
On August 1, 1952, the first People’s Liberation Army Games, the "August 1" Games, were in full swing in the suburbs of Beijing. Besides track and field, football, basketball, volleyball and other common sports, baseball is also included. At that time, the six major military regions, the navy and the public security forces all sent baseball teams to participate in the competition, and the competition scene was as fierce as other ball games.
However, due to the outbreak of the Korean War and the invasion of Taiwan Province by the U.S. imperialists through Chiang Kai-shek’s puppet authorities, the relationship between China and the United States plummeted, and baseball, a sport closely bound to the United States, gradually cooled down in China.
Also in the middle of the 20th century, the United States finally surpassed Britain and became the biggest imperialist hegemony in the world, with extraordinary influence in almost all fields. But at this time, football has firmly sat on the throne of the world’s first sport, the mass base in the world has been established, and baseball has lost the opportunity to become a new "global sport."
Therefore, no matter how lively baseball is, it can only sprout in countries that are closely related to the United States. It is even more difficult to come up with this circle.
References:
MLB: Baseball has actually been popular in China for a long time.
Zachary Brown: Baseball and Civil War, Forging American National Recreation.
Ma Jun: The Integration of Sports on National Identity
Baseball and America: Politics, Patriotism and Baseball on the Screen