Ramos: Connecting diaspora and baseball through Tim Lincecum
From SABR member Jen Mac Ramos at The Hardball Times on March 2, 2018:
I did not grow up in or with baseball. I never played Little League; I didn’t toss the ball around with friends. Rather, I discovered the sport in high school, deciding to watch the 2007 postseason on a whim. The next season, I fell in love with my hometown (or regionally adjacent) San Francisco Giants and, more particularly, Tim Lincecum.
Tim Lincecum was an anomaly for me, a first generation Filipino-American. Growing up, I didn’t see any Filipinos in American media or on a platform as big as sports—Manny Pacquiao aside. My parents pointed out whenever I watched Mulan that Mulan’s singing voice was Filipina Lea Salonga, but it wasn’t as if I was actually seeing Salonga sing. This is what made Lincecum stand out for me.There was something about being able to see someone who looked like me pitching for my favorite team. Not only that, but seeing someone who looked like me and was successful. That meant a lot to me as someone who spent their entire life struggling with figuring out their identity.
Lincecum, who is half-Filipino, was the first ethnically Filipino person to win a major big league award when he won the Cy Young in 2008.
Read the full article here: https://www.fangraphs.com/tht/connecting-diaspora-and-baseball-through-tim-lincecum/
Originally published: March 2, 2018. Last Updated: March 2, 2018.