My beloved Seattle Mariners today made Don Wakamastu the first Asian-American manager in Major League Baseball. As a baseball fan, I’m happy because I think the signing signals a positive new direction with the organization and it’s philosophy. From all reports I believe Don Wakamatsu will be in a good position to work with the young group of players he’s just been handed. Of course, you never know until game are played, but it’s exciting.
As an Asian-American though, I couldn’t be happier. This isn’t an equality or fairness issue — I honestly believe that in the eyes of the baseball organization hiring Wak (as he’s know in baseball circles) made the most sense from a baseball perspective, just as it would’ve been had they gone with any of the six other highly qualified candidates. But that doesn’t keep me from being ecstatic about the choice of a Japanese-American. What excites me is two fold: we’ve (Asians and mixed-Asians in particular) come this far, and we’re still making progress.
A generation ago, there were not Japanese born players in baseball.* Likewise, even today, the majority of Asian players in America are just that — from Asia. While there are a few hapa (mixed blood) players, they aren’t stars. And though MLB has made some strides to embrace managers of African-Americana and Latino descent, there is still some significant ceilings.
As I think back on my love of baseball (instilled at a very early age), I realize all my heroes invariably were hispanic. While there’s a variety of reasons for this (ie. Edgar Martinez kicks ass), a large part of this is something I addressed it previous blog posts. It’s important for a young kid to have role models that look like they do. Obviously, I’m not hispanic, but at the same time when I turned on TV as a child, all I saw was a sea of white people — it was exciting for me to see people of all races achieving at the highest levels playing a game I myself struggled at.
How awesome it must be for a young hapa child to turn on a ballgame and see a variety of players of asian descent. How great it will be for my children. For that reason alone, I wish Don Wakamatsu the greatest of success. It’s just icing on the cake if he takes my Mariners to the World Series (no pressure Don).
* Heck, let’s not forget that just one generation ago Don Wakamatsu’s father was born at the Tule Lake Relocation Center in N. California (where – coincidentally – my grandmother and her family was interned), an unfortunate victim of one of the worst racial profiling issues in 20th Century America. Sometimes we get so used to seeing incremental change that we miss the hugely exciting ones like this.