Teaching Baseball in Pittsburgh

I've come to the conclusion that baseball might be the hardest sport to teach internationals in the US.  I taught American football to my Chinese students in Rochester. I taught ice hockey to my Bhutanese students here (and I don't even like ice hockey!)  But, I've been trying to teach baseball now for two weeks and I haven't yet seen that gleam of understanding in their eyes.  Part of it might be that they are trying to understand it through the lens of cricket-as evidenced when one of my students asked, three days into the topic, how many balls each person pitches.  (Granted, my understanding of cricket comes mainly through the Bollywood movie Lagaan and a few all-night cricket tournaments at RIT, but at least I was able to recognize where that discrepancy came from and re-route them by explaining that, in baseball, the pitcher is always the pitcher-the role of pitching doesn't rotate from player to player.)  I guess I should recognize as progress that they have stopped calling the pitcher a bowler and be happy with small steps in the right direction. 

I think what is confusing them the most right now is understanding when a base runner has to run to the next base-so we haven't even started talking about leading off the base or stealing bases!  But, when I think about it all, I can understand how it can be confusing.  I mean, think about-why is a foul ball a strike when the count is 2-1, but not when it's 2-2?  And the terminology-the 'batter' changes to the 'runner' after he hits the ball.  It makes sense once you understand the game but getting to that point is a different story. 

But, why is it important enough for me to dedicate time to this topic?  In class, we have actually used baseball to talk about many aspects of American culture.  Whether you think baseball is still America's national pastime or not, it is likely that you can see its impact in everyday life.  Let's start with idioms-baseball, far more than any other professional sport, has added idioms into everyday conversation-and not just in the business world!  Even the most anti-sports person will probably refer to the three strike rule.  And did you know that baseball was the first professional sport to sing the National Anthem before the start of each and every game?  Yup, since World War II.

And speaking of WWII, let's not forget baseball's impact on history with Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in 1947 and the start of the All American Girl's Professional Baseball League in 1943 (most notably portrayed in A League of Their Own, which we also watched in class.) For us, baseball became a jumping off point for us to talk about this history of discrimination in this country-and what people have done to prevent it. 

I'm actually sad that we've finished the movie and this topic in class-it led to some great discussions comparing discrimination and rights in the two countries and reminded me again why America still is a country that people want to come to to better their lives.  And learning baseball?  They'll get it-eventually.