Interview with former Yankees/Phillies pitcher and now coach Jason Stephens

Hey Everyone:

I'm excited for this post.  I just recently (finally) got back an interview questionnaire that I sent to a friend of mine who has been involved with professional baseball since the early 2000's.  His name is Jason Stephens.  Jason is currently a player/coach with the Philadelphia Phillies after undergoing numerous arm surgeries and was kind enough to email me back his detailed responses on his perspective of the American and Latino cultures of baseball.  Jason is tenured when it comes to the game (particularly at the professional level) and has been through many parts of the country, seeing various teams, organizational structures, players, etc.  He was drafted in the 5th round out of high school by the New York Yankees and after spending seven years in New York, he signed with the Philadelphia Phillies where he remains today.

In order to preserve authenticity, originality, and error, the transcript was not altered, grammatically changed, or tampered with in any way.  How you see it is how I received it.  As always, feel free to comment on any of Jason's answers, viewpoints, experiences, etc.

Without further ado, here is the transcript:

Interview with:  Jason Stephens
Administered by:  Cory Hindel

1) Do you believe that baseball is still an ‘American Game?’ 

Baseball is considered to be an American game because of its origins.  Though there were similar games worldwide, the game of baseball has its roots here.  Even though the rules have changed very little over the years, the way game is played and portrayed has changed drastically.  I would argue that the game of baseball is just as much an “American” game today as it was in the days of Ruth and Gehrig.  Baseball has adopted many of the same characteristics that the country as a whole exhibits.  It has put more stress on profits and the individual than on the game itself.  In adding the Latin countries we have pulled them into our version of the game rather than incorporating what it is to them.

When I talk about “baseball” being an American game, it needs to be understood that means “Major League Baseball” and their affiliates.  And as such, it is obvious that every team in the league strives to win the World Series not because it puts them at the pinnacle of their sport, but because of the future profits they will earn in jersey sales, attendance and T.V. Rights.  On player to player basis, the same is true.  American fans have demanded that the play style go away from the traditional bunt-and-run style in favor of “the long ball”.  In this way I think American culture has influenced the game so much that there’s no doubt we can call it our own.

2) Do you believe there is disparity in baseball between the American culture of baseball and the Latin America culture of baseball?  Please explain:

There are differences between the two cultures and the easiest way to spot them is to look at the professional leagues in Latin countries.  The winter leagues that play in Venezuela, The Dominican Republic and Mexico only resemble the game we know as far as the rules they follow.  Fan support and attendance is much more universal throughout the league as opposed to the contrast you see in the MLB between teams like the Yankees and the Royals.  It seems they decide to support a team and are more loyal to those teams because they like the game as opposed to wanting to be associated with a winning organization.

3) As a professional coach, where do you see the biggest differences between the players (Americans vs. Latinos), fans (Americans vs. Latinos), etc.?

The biggest difference between the American and Latin players is an easy one to spot.  It’s like comparing Little League to the MLB.  Some of the stereotypes about baseball players turn out to be true.  American players tend to look at the game from a business perspective.  They approach baseball as a means to an end.  That’s not to say that they don’t enjoy playing the game but it really seems like a majority or playing only because they see the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.  Whereas, with the Latin culture, it seems as though their playing for the love of the game.  It sounds cliche but when you’ve seen enough locker rooms it starts to seem pretty true.

The difference between the fans is not quite as easy to define.  As a player and a coach I can say confidently the difference between the players, but the difference in the fans I have to speculate.  Mainly it seems like American fans will find a favorite team and latch on whereas in the Latin culture, especially the Dominican, they will always support the hometown heroes.

4) Where do you think there should be a change (if at all) in the culture of baseball to make it a ‘more inclusive’ game?

The only way that the culture of baseball will become anything else is if the fans of baseball decide that it should be something different.  If baseball fans were more connected with their hometown teams and followed them through good seasons and through bad baseball would become more inclusive.  As opposed to stressing the individual players on the team, fans should view teams the way the European Futbal fans view their Clubs.  It would force the game to adjust along with the public interest.

Keeping the "Gangs" out

This next post is a touchy subject, especially in today's American culture.  There are stereotypes across the board of Latino's and their immigrant status, "rough" way of life etc. without little if any justification.  This story/article, as many of you may have already heard about, deals with Los Angeles Dodgers fans who maliciously beat a San Francisco Giants fan after one of their games during a weekend series.  The argument in the article, more or less, labels these Latino Americans with "no wonder" or "of course" or "I'm not surprised" titles, saying that it is just the personality and lifestyle of Latino Americans and that "they" are destroying the American game of baseball (Rojas, 2011).

Please feel free to comment on anything with regards to the article.  Here is the link:  http://multiamerican.scpr.org/2011/04/race-and-the-dodger-stadium-attack/

Rojas, L.B. (Writer). (2011). Race and the dodger stadium attack [Radio series episode]. In (Executive producer), Multi-American: Immigration and cultural fusion in the new Southern California. Pasadena: Southern California Public Radio.

The Dominican Pipeline Paper

The Dominican Pipeline

"As Western societies become increasingly multi-ethnic and states broadly embrace the ensuing diversity, even if only as a rhetorical ideal, racial and ethnic difference is an ever more sensitive and socially significant issue instead of a benign form of individual and group categorization" (St. Louis, 2003, p. 75).

          There is no question that our culture, Western society, is becoming more and more multi-ethnic.  Societies across the nation are having minority population percentages skyrocket with little interest in “why?” the increase and more of the “how?”  Arguably the most visibly seen instance is right within the society and world of sport; even more specifically, baseball.  In the New York Times’ sports playlist video The Dominican Pipeline we are thrown into this ethnically wide and diverse game of baseball.  It is a video that’s purpose is to show a new era of business that’s operations are philosophically based on helping out an underprivileged minority, the youth of the Dominican Republic, by providing them the opportunity to be seen and recognized by baseball scouts in the United States.  It is also, however, an unfortunate reality that these ‘business men’ are using the Dominican population as nothing more than a stepping stone to give themselves more power and money.
          Indeed, it may be difficult to understand the true meaning behind the relationships between ethnic and racial differences, but that is what sport sociology is all about; researching why certain things are.  As Sage (1987) put it, “…sport sociology will not very often provide neat recipes for the practitioner” (p. 273).  This being the case, we must figure out why the white male looks at Dominicans as an investment, or a piece of property, rather than a human being.  In The Dominican Pipeline, there needs to be very clear transparency between what is right and what is wrong with regards to the treatment and handling of each and every Dominican youth baseball player.  New York Mets owner Sandy Alderson said of this ‘Dominican Pipeline,’ “If [American investors] want to be involved in this kind of activity and generate some sort of investment profit, it could be a positive.  But they need to make sure that it is a positive.”  He does not want it to become a business that is solely based upon the ideology of taking these ‘underprivileged’ kids to merely generate return for themselves.
           According to Bourdieu (1978), “it is possible to consider the whole range of sporting activities and entertainments offered to social agents…as a supply intended to meet a social demand” (p. 237).  In reality, this is exactly what these Western philosophy thinking, white males are trying to do with the Dominican youth.  While they are focusing on the individual side, they see these kids as nothing more than an entertainment venture with little to zero overhead needed to produce their desired outcomes.  They have a low budget with sub-standard living conditions and ultimately unlimited return.  This is where you can strongly see the idea of social class and race clash with ethnicity.  Furthermore, a sense of Marxism can be seen between the ideology of capitalism and the white male.  While the ideas resonate throughout the world of Marxism, they are more along the lines of social conflict theory:

"Social conflict theory assumes that the normal state of affairs in society is tension between major economic interest or classes.  In capitalist societies, these major classes are the dominant capitalist class of owners of the resources used in industrial production and the subordinate class of industrial workers, who are exploited by the capitalist owners and are paid less than their work is worth and as little as possible so that the capitalists can earn as much profit as possible" (Nixon, 2007, p. 32).

          The methodology used by Nixon suggests that there needs to be a shift away from these ideologies in that the subordinate class (the Dominican youth) should not succumb to the power of the major class (the Western, white business men from America).  Coakley (1982) further explains the dominance by white males over minorities (subordinate class) in describing Goodman’s account of the banning of New York children, who lived in working-class neighborhoods, playing outside on the streets and forcing them to be involved in an organized playground.  Coakley said, “…the organized activities sport programs became a means for training the children of immigrants to fit into a world of work founded on time schedules, the stopwatch, and production-conscious supervisors” (Coakley, 1982, p. 27).  This further illustrates how the Western ideas are imprinted into the ‘underprivileged’ Dominican youth’s minds.  While empirical data is indeed of importance in these regards, the shift from positivism to a more complete and inclusive type of research, particularly various theories such as this social conflict theory, is necessary.  Sociologists will want to understand the true meaning of businessmen and their intentions.
           There is also an obvious and unfortunate sense of political power that seems to drive the alienation of the Dominican youth.  It is power that is being enforced as the ‘do as I say if you want to be successful’ mantra by the white, upper-class, Western society males.  Andrews (2008) confirms this notion by saying “that societies are fundamentally divided along hierarchically ordered lines of differentiation (i.e., those based on class, ethnic, gender, ability, generational, national, racial, and/or sexual norms), as realized through the operations of power and power relations within the social formation” (p. 57).  This describes how there is a hierarchical establishment of power between not only Western society ideologies (strictly America?), but more specifically within race and ethnicity.  We can see this through the operations of white managers of these Dominican baseball entities as they establish themselves as the only option for the Dominican Republic’s youth.  Smaje (1997) believes, confirming the thought of Andrews, that there is great debate on the idea of race and ethnicity being the “somatic and cultural principles of social hierarchy” (p. 309).  Smaje says, though he is not willing to argue the point, that there is an utmost interest in the studying of somatic and cultural ideologies and the affect that they have on the relationships within societies; particularly hierarchical relationships.  Furthermore, Smaje goes on to say that any type of “ethnic sentiment” we establish “is merely displaced by one relating to a particular economic relation” (Smaje, 1997, p. 311).  What this tells us is that we now not only believe that the Dominican youth are doomed without us, but that because they are Latino, we assume they are economically deprived.  By judging them on nothing more than their ethnicity we believe that we can assume their entire identity.  Allport observed and claimed “that being the target of a negative stereotype about an important social identity is distressing and promotes a number of defensive reactions” (Stone, Sjomeling, Lynch, & Darley, 1998, p. 1213).  Unfortunately, this is exactly what is happening.  Western society is forming these negative stereotypes and connotations with who we think Latinos are, and if not, who we think they should be.
           A major detriment to the Latino community is that they are given this idea by Western males from the dominant class that baseball is the be all end all.  It then becomes, more or less, a self-fulfilling prophecy in the sense that the youth from the Dominican Republic do not believe they can do anything other than play baseball.  This is shown through a study by Harrison and Lawrence where “college students in a predominantly white midwestern university in the United States embodied the notion, among a number of racialized perceptions, that black athletes are superior in certain sports to whites” (Azzarito & Harrison, 2008, p. 349).  While obviously in this case the variables are white and black athletes, it still holds true in The Dominican Pipeline.  Due to this, some of the kids who choose to enter these baseball training academies may miss out on education that they would otherwise be receiving.  The academies even go as far as having barbed wire surrounding their grounds, something that is said to keep them from leaving at night to meet girls.  The video also discusses how most of the kids in these settings will not even make it to any one of the professional leagues in the United States.  It just shows our unfortunate sense of greed and power and how we have the ability to change young kids’ lives for the better or the worse.  The investors, as they call them, admit that they make millions of dollars on these kids by taking higher percentages than allowed in the United States on players’ signing bonuses if picked up, but that what they are really trying to do is “improve the conditions which these kids live under” and that they “ultimately do want to have [for the kids] education.”  Yeah, right.

Andrews, D. L. (2008). Kinesiology’s Inconvenient Truth and the physical cultural studies  imperative. Quest, 60, 45-62.

Azzarito, L., & Harrison, L. (2008). ‘White men can’t jump’: Race, gender and natural  athleticism. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 43(4), 347-364.

Bourdieu, P. (2008 [1978]). Sport and social class. In A. Tomlinson (Ed.) The Sport Studies  Reader (237-241). New York: Routledge.

Coakley, J. (2001 [1982]). Sport in society: An inspiration or an opiate? In S.D. Eitzen (Ed.)  Sport in contemporary society (20-37).

Nixon, H. L. (2007). Social theories and research methods in sport sociology. Sport in a  changing world. Boulder, CO: Paradigm.

Sage, G. H. (1987). Pursuit of knowledge in sociology of sport: Issues and prospects. Quest, 39,  255-281.

Smaje, C. (1997). Not just a social construct: Theorising race and ethnicity. Sociology, 31(2),  307-327.

St. Louis, B. (2003). Sport, genetics and the ‘natural athlete’: The resurgence of racial science.  Body & Society, 9(2), 75-95.

Stone, J., Lynch, C. I., Sjomeling, M., & Darley, J. M. (1999). Stereotype threat effects on black  and white athletic performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77(6),  1213-1227.

Capitalism - An example of the our power

I would very much like you all to watch this video.  This video is what our discussion is all about and is the inspiration to why I started this blog.  It is called The Dominican Pipeline.  Without giving the video away, it essentially shows how white, American, venture capitalists go to the Dominican Republic to find cheap baseball players.  They start up baseball camps without providing "up-to-standard" living, food, etc.  Virtually, they are looking to thrive financially at the expense of the Dominican baseball players; the players earn nothing in return.  As an aid to this post, I have also added a paper that I wrote on The Dominican Pipeline for my Sociology of Sport class.  You can find the paper as another post on today's date.  Please feel free to comment on any of the material.

Link to the Video:  http://video.nytimes.com/video/2010/11/18/sports/baseball/1248069342534/the-dominican-pipeline.html?scp=1&sq=pipeline&st=cse

Inclusive?

This next segment I want to talk about is in regards to the inclusion of the Latino culture.  For the purpose of time and the blog, we will only look at a media article which explains, in a nutshell, everything we need to know about the Dominican Republic and baseball.  The article was done by Joe Connor, a sports contributor to ESPN and is entitled Welcome to the Dominican Republic.  What I want you to pay close attention to is how exactly we have included/excluded some, if any, of the cultural values of baseball according to the Dominican.  Please read and respond.


Here is the link:  http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/worldclassic2006/news/story?id=2291226

Introduction

I want to start off by introducing myself and my composition.  My name is Cory H (while I understand the importance of personalization mechanisms, for now I feel as though a pseudonym with regards to last names shall suffice) and I am currently a graduate student at Kent State University.  I played baseball while in undergrad and have recently developed a critical view towards the game (I know…critical seems such a harsh word, but please do not dismiss my verbiage as me turning my back against the game itself).  On the contrary to the matter, I do not believe that being critical to things leads to hypocrisy or unfaithfulness, but rather to a better and more full understanding of any given situation; after all, you should question the things you love the most and baseball has been the centerpiece to much of what I am today.  I am defining critical in the sense that I have come to develop an ability to take an outside look into the game in which I centered my life around without distancing myself from its origins and importance.  To me, baseball was just a game that took place on some dirt, in between two lines and a fence.  But my unfortunate epistemological naivety of the game itself, most specifically the cultural significance and positioning of baseball in America, was unbeknownst to me until I began my graduate endeavors. 

To avoid monotony I will dive right into the matter.  The purpose of this blog is to open the eyes of its followers and respondents (as well as my own) to the exceedingly sociologically and culturally diverse world in which baseball is comprised.  I will provide numerous articles of reference, which will include media and academic sources, as well as personal interviews, surveys, and observances, to help stir insight and both subjective and objective responses.  My hope is to provide you the specified information above along with subjective views of my own and, in return, receive input from you regarding baseball and how it has been constructed into, more or less, what we view as an Americanized melting pot.  Only then can we, together, ask ourselves the purposeful and problematic question:  Is baseball really an American game?

Here is the first link to today’s blog:  http://writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/50s/baseball.html

The article is written by Gerald Early, who is an essayist and American culture critic.  For more on Early, please go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Early.  In your replies (only if you are comfortable in specifying) would you please list your gender, age, ethnicity, relationship to baseball, and any other pertinent information you feel necessary to expose?  Reason being, I would like to see how our diverse opinions and backgrounds relate across the various demographic categories.  Please feel free to post any and everything with regards to this week’s post/link!