Can
U.S. Baseball Diplomacy Get the Save in
Nicaragua?
By Tim Rogers
MANAGUA - Any kid who has ever oiled a
baseball glove in February while wishing the
snow would melt — or an adult who still
cries every time Field of Dreams is shown on
cable — knows that baseball is far more than
just a game. And the U.S. government is also
starting to recognize that it can harness
the national pastime's awesome power as a
public diplomacy tool in tricky parts of the
world where traditional efforts have been
met with — well, traditional results.
Last month, 56 U.S. softball players
traveled to Cuba for a series of goodwill
games that probably did more for America's
public image on the island than any single
political effort over the past 50 years. And
in Nicaragua, where political relations with
the U.S. have frayed ever since former
revolutionary Daniel Ortega came back to
power in 2007, U.S. Ambassador Robert
Callahan has discovered he can do some of
his best work wearing a baseball mitt.
"I think the State Department is coming to
realize, belatedly, that [baseball] can be a
very effective tool in public diplomacy,"
Callahan told TIME. In the case of the U.S.
and Nicaragua, he said, "of all the things
that unite us, I think the great sport of
baseball is the most important."
A long-suffering Cubs fan who played
division III college ball, Callahan now
plays first base for the embassy's softball
team, "Los Cañoneros." As team captain, he
batted a respectable .347 this season. "I
guess for a guy who's 60, that's not bad.
But I've got no power any more, and I can't
run."
But Callahan can still hustle, which he
demonstrated on several occasions off the
diamond when forced to make quick escapes
from Sandinista mobs in recent months.
Leaders of Nicaragua's ruling party declared
Callahan persona non grata last October
after he gave a speech reiterating U.S.
concern about the Sandinistas' judicial
powerplay to green-light Ortega's reelection
bid in 2011, despite a constitutional ban
prohibiting it.
Following Callahan's Oct. 28 speech,
hundreds of Ortega supporters attacked the
U.S. Embassy with rocks, eggs and improvised
explosives fired from homemade mortars,
which packed enough punch to break
bulletproof windows. For several weeks
afterwards, the Sandinistas continued to
hound Callahan, surrounding him in public
events and forcing him to flee — on one
occasion with the help of riot police.
Still, Callahan hasn't let his off-field
problems rattle his game. After getting
dusted, he stepped back in the batter's box
and in the process may have won some sandlot
cred with a segment of Nicaraguans not
normally reached via traditional
suit-and-tie diplomacy.
"People see me on TV playing softball and
they think, 'He's not so bad, he's out there
playing ball with the guys — I mean he can't
be that bad, no matter what the government
says about him'," Callahan says with a
laugh. To help his Mr. Baseball image,
Callahan keeps several boxes of new
baseballs (printed with U.S. and Nicaraguan
flags) in his embassy vehicle so he can toss
out a few to kids playing pick-up games in
roadside fields.
Baseball has even helped Callahan score some
points with government officials who call
him a "yanqui imperialista" in public. At a
recent private event, Sandinista hardliner
Comandante Bayardo Arce, who's also
president of the Nicaraguan Professional
Baseball League, reportedly practiced some
baseball diplomacy of his own with Callahan.
"He puts his arm around me and says, in
front of all the Sandinistas, 'This is my
amigo from baseball — we share the love for
the great sport of baseball'," the
ambassador said. However, he added, baseball
is the only thing he and the former
revolutionary can talk about ... at least
politely. "Three minutes into politics and
we yell at each other."
Sometimes, of course, baseball and politics
don't mix. When U.S. Public Diplomacy Envoy
Cal Ripken Jr. visited Nicaragua last year,
the Hall of Fame shortstop was forced to cut
short his baseball clinics due to
post-electoral political riots. But that
hasn't soured interest in developing
baseball here.
On Dec. 17, former Major League greats Dave
Stewart and Reggie Smith visited to announce
that Nicaragua will be home to the
International Baseball Association's first
baseball academy in Central America. Smith,
a Red Sox Hall of Famer who has since
coached Team USA baseball teams, said the
association considered other locations in
Guatemala and Costa Rica, but decided on
Nicaragua because "here they have the
passion and a natural talent for the game,
and we won't be competing with soccer."
The academy, which will be similar to the
ones that have groomed so many big-name
talents in the Dominican Republic over the
past 30 years, hopes to help Nicaragua,
which has only produced 11 big leaguers,
reach its potential as the next great
baseball nation. And once there are 20 or 30
Nicaraguans playing in the majors, this
impoverished Central American nation will be
able to practice some baseball diplomacy of
its own with young fans across America.
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