Having a ball with diplomacy

The man with the steely blue eyes wrapped his hulking arms around the little girl and showed her how to swing the bat. She hit the ball on the next pitch and darted towards first base with a smile as wide as the ocean.

The blue-eyed hero was Cal Ripken Jr., a living legend among baseball fans and a newly appointed diplomat for the US State Department. "The Ironman", as the Hall-of-Famer was known in his years playing shortstop and third base for the Baltimore Orioles where he played in an unprecedented 2,632 consecutive games, had just arrived in China to serve as the "special sports envoy" for the US.

But the little girl was probably not aware of any of this. She was just out there for the love of the game. And that's how Ripken likes it.

Along with his wife and teenaged son and daughter, Ripken is currently on a 10-day tour of China beginning in Beijing and continuing on to Shanghai and Guangzhou. He is the second American to be named a sports diplomat: figure skater Michelle Kwan came to China in January in the same capacity.

It's a seemingly political position for a decidedly apolitical person, and Ripken considers it his job to spread peace and communication rather than to come to town with any agenda.

"I think baseball is a bridge that can open doors," he told a scrum of reporters on a chilly afternoon at Xidan Primary School in Beijing after a rollicking game of "quickball" with the students. "I believe in the value of sport as a good way to spread friendship around the world."

Ripken indeed made himself a lot of friends playing quickball with the kids on Tuesday afternoon - about 150 of them, all decked out in T-shirts bearing Ripken's name and jersey number (9) on the back. The rules of the game weren't entirely obvious, but the objective was clear: hit the ball and have a blast.

Student after student approached the plate as Ripken (or some other adult) lobbed a squishy foam ball towards them. As soon as the student made contact, he or she ran around the bases as classmates in the field squealed with glee, sometimes catching the ball, sometimes collapsing in laughter.

Adding to the joyous anarchy was Ripken, playfully pelting his newfound friends with the foamy balls and rolling on the turf in feigned agony when a batted ball struck him in the chest. The kids all ate it up - diplomacy in action.

"I hope it looked kind of like organized chaos," Ripken said. "It's about having fun."

Fun and diplomacy are not usually words associated with one another. But as the US attempts to rebuild its image across the world and engage in truly effective diplomacy, the State Department is focusing on a new demographic - children. And the best way to engage children, Ripken knows, is to have fun with them.

"I'm sure kids everywhere feel this way: it's not fun for kids to listen to adults speak and talk to them. It's more fun actually to play," Ripken said to the kids through a translator before the fun began . "So I say, let's play!"

Baseball may seem like a curious choice to engage children in China where only about 150,000 people play the game. But as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said when Ripken was named to the position in August, "Baseball is a sport that truly defines American culture. It is only fitting that the face of our national pastime would be one of the faces that America shows the world."

The baseball diplomacy between China and the US has been developing since the beginning of the summer when four Chinese players signed contracts with the New York Yankees and Seattle Mariners, making them the first Major League Baseball players from China.

Twelve Chinese coaches also traveled to Aberdeen, Maryland this summer to participate in a four-week clinic at Ripken's baseball academy, eager to make connections and learn some coaching skills they could bring back to their teams in China.

Some of these coaches were coached by Wang Shuhua, who stood in the background during the frenzy at Xidan, watching some of his current players join in the excitement.

Wang is a former volleyball coach who lost his training facility - and his job - after his gym was torn down due to relocation more than 20 years ago. He took up coaching baseball for school-age kids and promptly led his team to victory in a tournament for Beijing primary schools in 1981.

"I think baseball in China has a bright future," Wang said amid the laughter and screams. "I found it has more appeal than even popular sports such as soccer and basketball, especially for little kids."

Baseball is not new in China. The 69-year-old Wang said baseball was "extremely popular" when he was in primary school. But the sport all but vanished during the "cultural revolution" (1966-76) as its popularity, predictably, plummeted.

Now Wang teaches baseball to students every afternoon and holds well-attended clinics every weekend. He is like a baseball ambassador himself.

"I am very popular in the school because I bring kids a lot of joy through baseball," he said.

Ripken insists he has no political agenda as a diplomat - he just wants to bring joy. He wants Chinese kids to feel some of the magic he felt as a six-year-old, watching Oriole-great Frank Robinson hit a home run during the 1966 World Series. It doesn't matter that he can't verbally communicate with the kids; he's just there to lend a smile.

"Smiles are universal," he said. "That's an easy way to communicate."

(China Daily 11/02/2007 page22)