Whirty: Parallel experiences, parallel cultures in Nisei baseball
From SABR member Ryan Whirty at Home Plate Don’t Move on September 19, 2014:
As I work on my story on the Berkeley International League of the 1930s, I’m interviewing various people connected to the league or students of ethnic baseball in the Bay Area in the first half of the 20th century.
That effort brought me last night to Kerry Yo Nakagawa of Fresno, a member of SABR and an expert and author on the subject of Japanese-American, or Nisei, baseball played by first-generation Americans of Japanese descent.
I wanted to speak with Kerry because there were many Nisei who took part in the BIL, contributing to the remarkable mélange of colors and cultures represented in Byron “Speed” Reilly’s semipro circuit.
Our conversation centered around how the Nisei, like many other immigrant cultures, often used baseball to integrate and assimilate into American culture and gradually become accepted as Americans.
Read the full article here: http://homeplatedontmove.wordpress.com/2014/09/19/parallel-experiences-parallel-cultures/
Originally published: September 25, 2014. Last Updated: September 25, 2014.