Since its modern incarnation in the mid-1800s, baseball has been an American hobby. Dubbed “America’s pastime,” it once occupied everyone from lower-class families in the backyard to American presidents throwing the ceremonial first pitch since 1910. 

Now, however, America has shifted away from baseball. Other sports like soccer and football have replaced its number one spot, and the last two presidents have ceased to throw the first pitch. Meanwhile, its popularity has boomed in other countries. Adam Escandell is an AP world history teacher at LASA, and thinks that while baseball is American, it can also be Japanese, Cuban or Dominican. 

“We can call baseball a quintessentially American sport,” Escandell said. “And in some ways, that’s true. But it’s not like the Cubans and Japanese don’t play it differently from us.” 

Eric Martanovic teaches World Geography and coaches Baseball at LASA. His experience playing professional baseball for several teams shaped how he sees the sport, leading him to blame a decline in viewership on a separation from mainstream culture.

“Baseball is a game that takes a long time: you have time in between pitches and a lot of inactivity,” Martanovic said. “I think the other thing that needs to be considered with baseball is we don’t have enough household names anymore.” 

Economics, Escandell argues, is a less obvious trigger of cultural change. Although professional baseball is increasingly profitable, professional football now promises more money, and at the family level, the cost of baseball equipment can be prohibitive.

“People just have more options, kids have other things they can do,” Escandell said. “If you buy this expensive baseball bat, then you kind of want to use it a lot.”

Another economic factor is gambling. New apps and websites allow fans to bet on players at the touch of a button, and fantasy football, for some, may provide a community around sports betting and gambling.

“Football found a way, before sports gambling was largely legalized, to legalize sports gambling, and sports gambling is very popular,” Escandell said.

Escandell pointed out that while baseball’s viewer share may be decreasing, its revenue is only getting higher. Capitalism may drive the sport forward through its potential for enormous profits.

“There’s more money in baseball than there’s ever been before,” Escandell said. “There are literally more viewers, more attendees of games, more teams, more players than there’s ever been at any point in the past. And so if the claim is that baseball is somehow dying, then it’s hard to square that with Vladimir Guerrero getting a 500 million dollar contract.”

It can be hard to determine who, if anyone, a sport belongs to, even while they’re warped into people’s sense of personal and national identity. Although myths and rumors have floated around, like the story that baseball was invented in Cooperstown, New York, baseball has no single origin story. Although the name only came about in the 1800s, other versions of the game reach much deeper into history, such as rounders and cricket.

“In order for sports as a form of national competition to be meaningful, you on some level have to adapt sports that are from other places,” Escandell said. “Otherwise, how will you compete internationally?”

While it has declined in the U.S., baseball’s popularity has exploded in Japan, Taiwan, and Caribbean countries like the Dominican Republic, Cuba and Venezuela. LASA sophomore Masaki Chao has been on the varsity baseball team since his freshman year. He credits his love for baseball to both his Taiwanese father and Japanese mother, in whose home countries he has gone to games in the past. 

“In America, there’s not really a band,” Chao said. “But in Japan everyone is there [at baseball games]. If a school goes there, all the parents go, the cheerleaders go, the band goes. And it’s very loud, and it’s actually very fun in general.”

Japan’s culture has absorbed no shortage of other foreign elements, many of which it then exports back out with its own modifications. In terms of baseball, this has given rise to the concept of a yakyu shonen, literally “baseball boy”, who fanatically dedicates themselves to baseball. 

“Most Japanese players that go to the MLB usually are people that would risk their own physical condition,” Chao said. “I’ve seen people throw like 100 miles per hour. Roki Sasaki is a good example. He would throw his arm out to make it to the MLB.”

Baseball has also soared to the top sport in several countries on the Caribbean, including Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Venezuela. Many U.S. teams are full of players from this region, who, Martanovic thinks, are symbols of pride for their home nations.

“Those folks are revered in their home countries more so than someone from the United States who’s had similar outcomes,” Martanovic said. “It’s the story of making it: from going to a point in time where you would strap part of a milk carton to your hand to practice grounders, playing in dusty fields, throwing bottle tops and hitting them with broomsticks. This is where dreams are born.”

Although baseball’s face may be changing, Escandell emphasized that this could have meaning outside of nationality. For many, sports are entertainment with no cultural significance to them. Their political weight could be overstated by figures like the Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, who used baseball as part of his populist messaging.

“Castro would commonly claim that he had gotten scouted by the Yankees,” Escandell said. “Castro did play baseball growing up; there’s no evidence that he was very good. So this story is essentially a lie, but the element of the story that’s important is not just Castro saying that he could play this American sport, but he could play for the Yankees, the symbol of Americanism, like ‘that’s how good I was.’ That’s suggestive to me not of a conciliatory mode with the Americans but more something that’s defined–That baseball does not belong to you, it belongs to us, and that’s a way of claiming something.”

Since its modern incarnation in the mid-1800s, baseball has been an American hobby. Dubbed “America’s pastime,” it once occupied everyone from lower-class families in the backyard to American presidents throwing the ceremonial first pitch since 1910. 

Now, however, America has shifted away from baseball. Other sports like soccer and football have replaced its number one spot, and the last two presidents have ceased to throw the first pitch. Meanwhile, its popularity has boomed elsewhere. Adam Escandell is an AP world history teacher at LASA, and thinks that while baseball is American, it can also be Japanese, Cuban or Dominican. 

“We can call baseball a quintessentially American sport,” Escandell said. “And in some ways, that’s true. But it’s not like the Cubans and Japanese don’t play it differently from us.” 

Economics, Escandell argues, is a less obvious trigger of cultural change. Although professional baseball is increasingly profitable, professional football now promises more money, and at the family level, the cost of baseball equipment can be prohibitive.

“People just have more options, kids have other things they can do,” Escandell said. “If you buy this expensive baseball bat, then you kind of want to use it a lot.”

It can be hard to determine who a sport belongs to, even while they’re warped into people’s sense of personal and national identity. Although myths and rumors have floated around, baseball has no single origin story. Though the name only came about in the 1800s, other versions of the game reach much deeper into history. 

“In order for sports as a form of national competition to be meaningful, you on some level have to adapt sports that are from other places,” Escandell said. “Otherwise, how will you compete internationally?”

While it has declined in the U.S., baseball’s popularity has exploded in a huge number of other countries. LASA sophomore Masaki Chao has been on the varsity baseball team since his freshman year. He credits his love for baseball to both his Taiwanese father and Japanese mother, in whose home countries he has gone to games in the past. 

“In America, there’s not really a band,” Chao said. “But in Japan everyone is there [at baseball games]. If a school goes there, all the parents go, the cheerleaders go, the band goes. And it’s very loud, and it’s actually very fun in general.”

Japan’s culture has absorbed no shortage of other foreign elements, many of which it then exports back out with its own modifications. This has given rise to the concept of a yakyu shonen, literally “baseball boy”, who fanatically dedicates themselves to baseball. 

“Most Japanese players that go to the MLB usually are people that would risk their own physical condition,” Chao said. “I’ve seen people throw like 100 miles per hour. Roki Sasaki is a good example. He would throw his arm out to make it to the MLB.”

Baseball has also soared to the top sport in several countries on the Caribbean. Many U.S. teams are full of players from the region, who Martanovic says are symbols of pride for their home nations.

“Those folks are revered in their home countries more so than someone from the United States who’s had similar outcomes,” Martanovic said. “It’s the story of making it…this is where dreams are born.”

Escandell emphasized that baseball can have meaning outside of nationality. For many, sports are entertainment severed from cultural significance, but for others their significance can be overstated by figures like the Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, who used baseball to rally populist sentiment.

“Castro would commonly claim that he had gotten scouted by the Yankees,” Escandell said. “Castro did play baseball growing up; there’s no evidence that he was very good. So this story is essentially a lie, but the element of the story that’s important is not just Castro saying that he could play this American sport, but he could play for the Yankees, the symbol of Americanism, like ‘that’s how good I was.’ That’s suggestive to me not of a conciliatory mode with the Americans but more something that’s defined–That baseball does not belong to you, it belongs to us, and that’s a way of claiming something.”