Complete Video can be found here.
The above YouTube video is a segment of a story from Frontline on PBS. Please click on the link to see the full 12 minute story. It is really interesting.
The great thing about this video is that there are so different aspects of Baseball and Ghana that are shown. First and foremost is the acceptance, or lack their of, of baseball in Ghana. It is amazing that they are playing baseball in Ghana, and it’s not surprising that baseball has a lack of support. The story about the soccer goal in shallow left field represents that vast majority of people in Ghana probably do not care about baseball in Ghana.
To counteract this negative view of baseball in Ghana is another aspect of baseball in Ghana which is children playing it in order to get out, to make it big in America. This statement is an over generalization, but these feelings have some very similar ties to those players in the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, etc. The difference being that those countries have players who have made it big, who have made it to the pros. Ghana does not have these examples to relate to.
One of the aspects of this story that really struck me was the importance of Baseball on a Government/Political level as a symbol of the status of the country. I really never thought of Baseball as a sign of a country that is advancing, and Ghanaian Prince featured in this video really opened my eyes to that view. If we imagine an industrialized country as one being in a tree, and there is ladder leading to that tree, it is almost as if Ghana sees baseball as one of those rungs of the ladder to get to that state. Another, smaller version of this can be seen when the Barber at the end talks about how he wants to be able to watch players in his country play Baseball in a league style when he grows older. The undertone here is that the nation develops so that this can happen. It is there with soccer, and a more diverse nation can have it with Baseball. (This is of course open to interpretation because his aspirations here can be taken and understood on many different levels).
The video, with some subtlety, talks about the imperialism of Baseball. In this video, with Omar Minaya, Dusty Baker and Dave Winfield, is an example of the benign spread of baseball. Besides scouting, this group of three is not looking for an American buck in Ghana. The looking for an American buck is like the recent games in China (I still support those games) but there was an economic interest for the US in those games. One could make the argument that is happening with Ghana with all of the Mets logos on shirts that Omar brings with him, but that’s a real cynical view on a charitable move by Omar.
1 comment:
I actually went to Ghana to help spur on baseball back in 2000. I was the one who got Albert Ocran who is now the president of the sport in Ghana into the game.
It was a wonderful experience. The league that i started (and is it's still going) ran two week camps that taught both baseball... along with lifeskills... job skills and such.
Really cool
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