Pirates trio proud to represent Asian Americans in baseball

Joe, who identifies as Chinese American, reached base 4 occasions and scored twice. Mathias, who additionally identifies as Chinese American, recorded a two-run single. Stephenson, who identifies as Filipino American, pitched a scoreless seventh inning, recording his third maintain.

On this night time, three Asian American males donning the black and gold performed roles in a 4-2 Pirates win — a win that served as a testomony to the growing affect of Asian Americans not simply in baseball, however sports activities as an entire.

“It’s not something I would have ever really realized, but to hear it, it’s really cool,” Joe mentioned.

Joe, Mathias and Stephenson are among the many many Asian Americans who’ve performed within the Majors this season, an inventory that features names equivalent to Christian Yelich, Lars Nootbaar, Anthony Volpe, Travis d’Arnaud, Kolten Wong and Steven Kwan.

Asian Americans have traditionally comprised a small fraction of Major League Baseball’s participant pool, however lately, Asian Americans have carved out more room as outstanding figures within the recreation. As evidenced with the Pirates, the presence of a number of Asian American gamers on the identical workforce is turning into more and more widespread.

“There aren’t too many Asian Americans in baseball, so being one of the few is special,” Mathias mentioned.

This diploma of visibility wasn’t all the time the case. Neither Joe nor Mathias nor Stephenson recall having many Asian American gamers to look as much as whereas rising up. Stephenson, who grew up within the Bay Area, remembers watching two-time Cy Young Award winner Tim Lincecum (Filipino American) throughout his prime, however nobody else.

“I think about me as a child turning on the TV every night at dinner to watch Channel Four for the San Diego Padres,” Joe mentioned. “If I’m the person that an Asian American kid is able to turn on the TV and watch and be inspired by and feel encouraged to pursue a dream in baseball, I’m really proud of that.”

“I think it’s awesome for kids to see that and, depending on whatever [sport] they want to get into, they can have something to look forward to, something to have inspiration to pull from,” Stephenson mentioned. “I think it’s really cool for them to have an idol to look up to.”

The presence of Asian Americans in Major League Baseball dates again to 1956, when Bobby Balcena (Filipino American) grew to become the primary Asian American to play within the league, a trailblazer who set the desk for extra Asian Americans within the coming a long time.

In 1983, Lenn Sakata (Japanese American), grew to become the primary Asian American to take part in — and win — a World Series. In 2008, Don Wakamatsu grew to become MLB’s first Asian American supervisor. Whether it’s Lincecum successful a number of Cy Young Awards, Yelich successful an MVP or Dave Roberts and Travis Ishikawa (Japanese American) orchestrating two of the millennium’s most memorable postseason moments, Asian Americans proceed to depart their mark on the sport.

For Joe, a second-generation Chinese American, his delight derives not simply from being an Asian American in baseball, however due to an understanding of the sacrifices his grandparents made upon immigrating to the United States.

“They sacrificed for us to provide us with these opportunities,” Joe mentioned. “I feel like I would be squandering all of their hard work if I didn’t work hard or represent my family name, my culture, my background with the greatest honor.”

The significance of Joe, Mathias, Stephenson and different Asian Americans in sports activities extends past simply illustration.

Since Asian immigrants started arriving within the United States within the late nineteenth century, the Asian group has skilled numerous examples of othering and ostracizing, discrimination that has come within the type of coverage, xenophobia and violence. The results of the mannequin minority fable, particularly, continues to negatively impression the group. The mannequin minority fable, which limits the breadth of the Asian American expertise, is problematic for myriad causes, one being the sentiment that Asian Americans are anticipated to go to highschool and get good jobs quite than take part within the arts or athletics.

As the late Ronald Takaki, a professor in ethnic research at UC Berkeley for over twenty years wrote, in “Strangers From a Different Shore”:

“Asian Americans find their diversity as individuals denied: many feel forced to conform to the ‘model minority’ mold and want more freedom to be their individual selves, to be ‘extravagant.'”

The presence of Asian Americans throughout sports activities, then, actively serves to fight these stereotypes. For Joe, seeing Asian Americans in baseball and different sports activities permits the group to additional craft their very own, distinctive narratives, ones not represented within the mannequin minority fable.

“I’m very much aware of it, and I think that says enough,” Joe mentioned. “The fact that I’m aware of it means that I’ve experienced some sort of those external pressures to make me feel a certain way.”

On a number of events this season, Joe has stepped to the plate in an enormous spot and been showered with chants of, “Joe! Joe!” When requested what it could imply if a type of voices derived from a younger Asian American, one seeking to Joe, Mathias and Stephenson, Joe might solely smile.

“If I can inspire just one person, just one kid to get that feeling inside to pursue that dream, that would make me smile really big and make me feel really proud,” Joe mentioned.