Homerun
Received wisdom would have it that American baseball was imported to France during World War I by the American Expeditionary Force (AEF), which landed at the French port of Saint-Nazaire in 1917 under the command of John J. 'Blackjack' Pershing. Numerous eyewitness accounts of those times state that behind the front lines, from the beginning and all the way up to the Armistice with Germany on November 11, 1918, American troops devoted themselves to their national pastime. After pacing out diamonds as best they could on flinty dirt fields and erecting perfunctory but readable scoreboards, they joined in with wild enthusiasm at the umpire's shout of 'Play ball !' Histories of the American participation in WWI asserting that the first organized AEF baseball game in history was held at Aix-les-Bains in March, 1918, help perpetrate the urban legend that American doughboys 'introduced' the French to baseball.
Yet the first baseball game organized on French soil actually took place on March 8, 1889 during the Universal Exhibition. Promoter Albert Spalding (yes, he of sporting goods fame) and two American baseball teams traveled around the world to put on baseball exhibitions; one of the French games took place near the Eiffel Tower in Paris. One might say, then, that the doughboys, both white and black, enabled baseball to be appreciated -- along with jazz ! -- on a far wider scale by the French public than before. Nevertheless, previous to the AEF there were at least two French baseball players in the Majors: Ed Gagnier, born in 1882 in Paris, who apparently played shortstop in 1914 and 1915, and Claude Gouzzie, who had one at-bat for the 1903 St. Louis Browns.
The first French team, the chicly named 'Ranelagh Baseball Club', was founded in 1913 in Paris, while the French Fédération de Baseball was founded in 1924 - the year that the Olympic Games were held in Paris. A league was even established in 1926 - the mandatory step to officialize a sport under the French system. (By the way, the reader might want to know more about the reason(s) baseball has now been eliminated from the Summer Olympics, at least for 2012. A contingent of Major League Baseball and international officials are reportedly lobbying the International Olympic Committee hard for a return in 2016.)
Of course, interest in baseball grew substantially after World War II, when troops (and their children !) on the many American military bases throughout France would gather for serious jousts on Saturdays and Sundays. Mme Amerloque recalls going to a base near Chateauroux in central France in the '50s and staring with a small child's wonder at les américains playing a strange game, governed by almost incomprehensible rules, which required a bizarre baton and oversize, misshapen gloves.
There were two ways for the American expatriate in France during the 1960s through much of the 1980s to follow the US Major League Baseball season - and all American professional sports, for that matter.
The first was to consult the sports pages of the International Herald Tribune. If one didn't have enough centimes to hand, one could hustle over to the IHT building on the rue de Berri, just off the Champs-Elysees, and read the pages displayed two by two in purpose-built windows. The second was to stay up very late, and, if the atmospheric conditions were suitable, tune into medium wave and locate an Armed Forces Network (also called the AFRTS) station broadcasting from a SHAPE base in Belgium - or, more usually, from a frontline base beyond the Rhine, in what was then West Germany.
Baseball blasted off here in France during the 1980s. For example, Japanese teams, playing in well-organized leagues, took over the Bagatelle playing field in the Bois de Boulogne on Sunday afternoons from April to October. Officials from the Consulate would come out to open the season with due ceremony; after all, each team's uniforms (and sometimes a goodly part of its sporting equipment) was heavily subsidized by one or another Japanese organization, from local restaurant to international keiretsu. French players organized leagues throughout France; somewhere along the line the slumbering Fédération de Baseball morphed into the Fédération Française de Baseball et Softball. In 1992 Sports Illustrated published a comprehensive article detailing the impressive growth of baseball in France.
Satellite and cable TV in the latter part of the 1990s made it easier to watch US football and baseball. Canal+, the first cable subscription channel, showed summaries of World Series games. More recently the Sports+ channel – available on cable – has shown important games such as the All-Star Game and the World Series.
In the autumn of 2007 a new TV station called NASN (short for North American Sports Network) became available through several cable and satellite providers. From April through October, the network broadcasts American League and National League games as well as the playoffs and World Series games – in their entirety!
Recently the NASN became ESPN America, with basically the same coverage - and sports reporters - as NASN. Last month Amerloque was quite pleased to follow the World Baseball Classic, which saw the victory of the Japanese team - their second win in a row, the first having come in the WBC inaugural event in 2006.
Philosophically speaking, of course, Japan's back-to-back victories come as little surprise to Amerloque. The vast majority of field and indoor team sports currently played involve moving a ball, or other marker such as a puck, into some sort of goal. The team is focused on moving the marker to the scoring area, whether goalpost, net, or cage. In baseball, however, the team is focused on moving an individual - not an inanimate object but a real live human being - to score. For countries such as Japan and South Korea, which pride themselves on group harmony, baseball (introduced by the American military) is a game which reflects the values of their society. It is a logical extension of their cultures, in which individual wants and needs are sacrificed somewhat for the benefit of the group at large.
Amerloque has attended baseball games in France from time to time. Not only are there French players, but Venezuelans, Cubans, Koreans, Dominicans, Canadians, Panamanians, Japanese, Americans and, of course, Italians. The game is particularly well developed in Italy: apparently American soldiers working in burial details at the cemetery in Anzio, after the battles in 1944, would recruit local youths to help out - and taught them to play baseball on their breaks.
What's missing, of course, from every game played on French soil, is the players' chatter, crowd background noise and organ music. There is no seventh inning stretch, either. Finally, real hot dogs - especially footlong chili dogs - are unfortunately absent as well. Mme Amerloque usually prepares a few hotdogs and some fixins' ahead of time: real buns can be found in Paris if one looks hard enough, but genuine Oscar Mayer franks are unavailable here, to Amerloque's knowledge. The Amerloque family uses a small blue Camping Gaz device to bring water to a boil and cook the wieners and heat the chili on the spot.
No longer does the Parisian-American find Dick Roraback's unforgettable opus 'Crack of a Bat' published in the IHT on opening day of the US baseball season, as it was for many, many years. The New York Times has swallowed the old IHT hook, line, and sinker, and its masthead makes no bones about it ('The Global Edition of the New York Times') - in spite of management's pious bleating to the contrary immediately after the heavy-handed takeover several years ago.
Dick Roraback, who passed away in 1998, was Sports Editor of the International Herald Tribune in Paris from 1957 to 1972. He reportedly penned his poem when seated at the storied Café de la Paix, over near the American Express office on the rue Scribe, near the Palais Garnier which houses the Opéra de Paris.
THE CRACK OF A BAT
by
Dick Roraback
Away on this side of the ocean
When the chestnuts are hinting of green
And the first of the café commandos
Are moving outside for a fine
And the sound of spring beats a bolero
As Paree sheds her coat and her hat
The sound that is missed more than any
Is the sound of the crack of a bat.
There’s an animal kind of feeling
There’s a stirring down at Vincennes Zoo
And the kid down the hall’s getting restless
Taking stairs like a young kangaroo
Now the dandy is walking his poodle
And the concierge sunning her cat
But the heart’s with the Cubs and the Tigers
And the sound of the crack of a bat.
In the park on the corner run schoolboys
With a couple of cartons for props
Kicking goals à la Fontaine or Kopa
While a little guy chikies for cops
“Goal for us,” “No it’s not,” “You’re a liar,”
Then the classical shrieks of a spat
But it’s not like a rhubarb at home plate
Or the sound of the crack of a bat.
Here the stadia thrill to the scrumdowns
And the soccer fans flock to the games
And the chic punt the nags out at Longchamp
Where the women are dames and not dames
But it’s different at Forbes and at Griffith
The homes of the Buc and the Nat
Where the hotdog and peanut share laurels
With the sound of the crack of a bat.
No, a Yank can’t describe to a Frenchman
The rasp of an umpire’s call
The continuing charms of statistics
Changing hist’ry with each strike and ball
Nor the self-conscious jog of the slugger
Rounding third with the tip of his hat
Nor the half-smothered grace of a hook slide
Nor the sound of the crack of a bat.
Now, the golfer is buffing his niblick
And the tennis buff’s tightening his strings
And the fisherman’s flexing his flyrod
Like a thousand and one other springs
Oh, the sports on both sides of the ocean
Have a great deal in common, at that
But the thing that’s not HERE
At this time of the year
Is the sound of the crack of a bat.
Today is opening day in the USA, and readers of these lines can bank on several things this year: after reading 'Crack of a Bat' to a few close American and French friends invited over for the occasion, Amerloque will invite them to watch a game on ESPN America on TV. During the seventh inning stretch, Mme Amerloque will bring out and serve her astoundingly tasty hotdogs. Ice-cold root beer and Dr Pepper will be offered as well, but in all these years Amerloque has never seen a French person drink more than a (very) few polite sips. Yet more testimony to cultural differences !
L'Amerloque
Text © Copyright 2009 by L'Amerloque
Yet the first baseball game organized on French soil actually took place on March 8, 1889 during the Universal Exhibition. Promoter Albert Spalding (yes, he of sporting goods fame) and two American baseball teams traveled around the world to put on baseball exhibitions; one of the French games took place near the Eiffel Tower in Paris. One might say, then, that the doughboys, both white and black, enabled baseball to be appreciated -- along with jazz ! -- on a far wider scale by the French public than before. Nevertheless, previous to the AEF there were at least two French baseball players in the Majors: Ed Gagnier, born in 1882 in Paris, who apparently played shortstop in 1914 and 1915, and Claude Gouzzie, who had one at-bat for the 1903 St. Louis Browns.
The first French team, the chicly named 'Ranelagh Baseball Club', was founded in 1913 in Paris, while the French Fédération de Baseball was founded in 1924 - the year that the Olympic Games were held in Paris. A league was even established in 1926 - the mandatory step to officialize a sport under the French system. (By the way, the reader might want to know more about the reason(s) baseball has now been eliminated from the Summer Olympics, at least for 2012. A contingent of Major League Baseball and international officials are reportedly lobbying the International Olympic Committee hard for a return in 2016.)
Of course, interest in baseball grew substantially after World War II, when troops (and their children !) on the many American military bases throughout France would gather for serious jousts on Saturdays and Sundays. Mme Amerloque recalls going to a base near Chateauroux in central France in the '50s and staring with a small child's wonder at les américains playing a strange game, governed by almost incomprehensible rules, which required a bizarre baton and oversize, misshapen gloves.
There were two ways for the American expatriate in France during the 1960s through much of the 1980s to follow the US Major League Baseball season - and all American professional sports, for that matter.
The first was to consult the sports pages of the International Herald Tribune. If one didn't have enough centimes to hand, one could hustle over to the IHT building on the rue de Berri, just off the Champs-Elysees, and read the pages displayed two by two in purpose-built windows. The second was to stay up very late, and, if the atmospheric conditions were suitable, tune into medium wave and locate an Armed Forces Network (also called the AFRTS) station broadcasting from a SHAPE base in Belgium - or, more usually, from a frontline base beyond the Rhine, in what was then West Germany.
Baseball blasted off here in France during the 1980s. For example, Japanese teams, playing in well-organized leagues, took over the Bagatelle playing field in the Bois de Boulogne on Sunday afternoons from April to October. Officials from the Consulate would come out to open the season with due ceremony; after all, each team's uniforms (and sometimes a goodly part of its sporting equipment) was heavily subsidized by one or another Japanese organization, from local restaurant to international keiretsu. French players organized leagues throughout France; somewhere along the line the slumbering Fédération de Baseball morphed into the Fédération Française de Baseball et Softball. In 1992 Sports Illustrated published a comprehensive article detailing the impressive growth of baseball in France.
Satellite and cable TV in the latter part of the 1990s made it easier to watch US football and baseball. Canal+, the first cable subscription channel, showed summaries of World Series games. More recently the Sports+ channel – available on cable – has shown important games such as the All-Star Game and the World Series.
In the autumn of 2007 a new TV station called NASN (short for North American Sports Network) became available through several cable and satellite providers. From April through October, the network broadcasts American League and National League games as well as the playoffs and World Series games – in their entirety!
Recently the NASN became ESPN America, with basically the same coverage - and sports reporters - as NASN. Last month Amerloque was quite pleased to follow the World Baseball Classic, which saw the victory of the Japanese team - their second win in a row, the first having come in the WBC inaugural event in 2006.
Philosophically speaking, of course, Japan's back-to-back victories come as little surprise to Amerloque. The vast majority of field and indoor team sports currently played involve moving a ball, or other marker such as a puck, into some sort of goal. The team is focused on moving the marker to the scoring area, whether goalpost, net, or cage. In baseball, however, the team is focused on moving an individual - not an inanimate object but a real live human being - to score. For countries such as Japan and South Korea, which pride themselves on group harmony, baseball (introduced by the American military) is a game which reflects the values of their society. It is a logical extension of their cultures, in which individual wants and needs are sacrificed somewhat for the benefit of the group at large.
Amerloque has attended baseball games in France from time to time. Not only are there French players, but Venezuelans, Cubans, Koreans, Dominicans, Canadians, Panamanians, Japanese, Americans and, of course, Italians. The game is particularly well developed in Italy: apparently American soldiers working in burial details at the cemetery in Anzio, after the battles in 1944, would recruit local youths to help out - and taught them to play baseball on their breaks.
What's missing, of course, from every game played on French soil, is the players' chatter, crowd background noise and organ music. There is no seventh inning stretch, either. Finally, real hot dogs - especially footlong chili dogs - are unfortunately absent as well. Mme Amerloque usually prepares a few hotdogs and some fixins' ahead of time: real buns can be found in Paris if one looks hard enough, but genuine Oscar Mayer franks are unavailable here, to Amerloque's knowledge. The Amerloque family uses a small blue Camping Gaz device to bring water to a boil and cook the wieners and heat the chili on the spot.
No longer does the Parisian-American find Dick Roraback's unforgettable opus 'Crack of a Bat' published in the IHT on opening day of the US baseball season, as it was for many, many years. The New York Times has swallowed the old IHT hook, line, and sinker, and its masthead makes no bones about it ('The Global Edition of the New York Times') - in spite of management's pious bleating to the contrary immediately after the heavy-handed takeover several years ago.
Dick Roraback, who passed away in 1998, was Sports Editor of the International Herald Tribune in Paris from 1957 to 1972. He reportedly penned his poem when seated at the storied Café de la Paix, over near the American Express office on the rue Scribe, near the Palais Garnier which houses the Opéra de Paris.
THE CRACK OF A BAT
by
Dick Roraback
Away on this side of the ocean
When the chestnuts are hinting of green
And the first of the café commandos
Are moving outside for a fine
And the sound of spring beats a bolero
As Paree sheds her coat and her hat
The sound that is missed more than any
Is the sound of the crack of a bat.
There’s an animal kind of feeling
There’s a stirring down at Vincennes Zoo
And the kid down the hall’s getting restless
Taking stairs like a young kangaroo
Now the dandy is walking his poodle
And the concierge sunning her cat
But the heart’s with the Cubs and the Tigers
And the sound of the crack of a bat.
In the park on the corner run schoolboys
With a couple of cartons for props
Kicking goals à la Fontaine or Kopa
While a little guy chikies for cops
“Goal for us,” “No it’s not,” “You’re a liar,”
Then the classical shrieks of a spat
But it’s not like a rhubarb at home plate
Or the sound of the crack of a bat.
Here the stadia thrill to the scrumdowns
And the soccer fans flock to the games
And the chic punt the nags out at Longchamp
Where the women are dames and not dames
But it’s different at Forbes and at Griffith
The homes of the Buc and the Nat
Where the hotdog and peanut share laurels
With the sound of the crack of a bat.
No, a Yank can’t describe to a Frenchman
The rasp of an umpire’s call
The continuing charms of statistics
Changing hist’ry with each strike and ball
Nor the self-conscious jog of the slugger
Rounding third with the tip of his hat
Nor the half-smothered grace of a hook slide
Nor the sound of the crack of a bat.
Now, the golfer is buffing his niblick
And the tennis buff’s tightening his strings
And the fisherman’s flexing his flyrod
Like a thousand and one other springs
Oh, the sports on both sides of the ocean
Have a great deal in common, at that
But the thing that’s not HERE
At this time of the year
Is the sound of the crack of a bat.
Today is opening day in the USA, and readers of these lines can bank on several things this year: after reading 'Crack of a Bat' to a few close American and French friends invited over for the occasion, Amerloque will invite them to watch a game on ESPN America on TV. During the seventh inning stretch, Mme Amerloque will bring out and serve her astoundingly tasty hotdogs. Ice-cold root beer and Dr Pepper will be offered as well, but in all these years Amerloque has never seen a French person drink more than a (very) few polite sips. Yet more testimony to cultural differences !
L'Amerloque
Text © Copyright 2009 by L'Amerloque
Images © Copyright reserved to copyright holders, including Amerloque
posted by L'Amerloque at 1:11 AM
13 Comments:
Mrs. Sunsett loves baseball. Having lived in Atlanta for 20 years, naturally, her team is the Braves. As for me, I remember watching Angel games on TV and listening to them on the radio, when they were not.
Braves looked good opening night, only 161 to go. Angels open against Oakland in a little while.
Dear Amerloque friend,
very nice to see that the Baseball is well mentionned in your blog.
I am in charged of ESPN AMERICA in France and I am glad that you have noticed that we could propose to the "Amerloques" like you a very good coverage in US Sports.
I would love to have some viewers like you to talk about all this American Sport culture.
As Baseball, American Football, Ice Hockey or NCAA Basketball & Football, all those great sports need to be more well known in France.
Let's pass the word and make sure that all the American expatriates, who miss the US and their sports, are aware of that.
Bon vent cher Amerloque ;-)
L'Equipe d'ESPN AMERICA
This essay is a "homerun" with bases loaded, Ameriloque ... I enjoyed reading it very much.
Semper Fi
How can they not like Dr. Pepper or Rootbeer? It must be their lack of culture! ;)
We could never find Dr. Pepper in France but it is available in Switzerland (and growing to be more and more available). We did find Rootbeer in France but it was super expensive.
Hello L'Equipe d'ESPN AMERICA !
/// very nice to see that the Baseball is well mentionned in your blog.
I am in charged of ESPN AMERICA in France and I am glad that you have noticed that we could propose to the "Amerloques" like you a very good coverage in US Sports.///
Amerloque extends his thanks for stopping by ... and for the kind words !
/// I would love to have some viewers like you to talk about all this American Sport culture. ///
A very good book dealing with the sports culture in America was revised and reissued recently.
Its title is American Sports: From the Age of Folk Games to the Age of Televised Sports by Benjamin G. Rader
Amerloque remembers an earlier edition as being an excellent discussion of most sports and some valuable insight into why European football ('soccer') never took off - among males, at least - outre atlantique.
Best,
L'Amerloque
Hi Mustang !
/// This essay is a "homerun" with bases loaded, Ameriloque ... I enjoyed reading it very much. ///
Thank you, Mustang.
With today's events, Amerloque has just taken a bit of time to fill in a few cultural references for Mme Amerloque ... they are found in a well-known US song ... "From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli ... "
Best,
L'Amerloque
Hi Pumpkin !
/// How can they not like Dr. Pepper or Rootbeer? It must be their lack of culture! ;) ///
(grin) Amerloque wonders if the French say the same things about Americans concerning, say, squirrel and opossum ... (grin)
Here's a great recipe:
Roast Opossum with Sweet Potatoes
1 dressed opossum (approximately 6-10 lb.)
1 pod red pepper
Flour
12 boiled sweet potatoes
Dress the opossum; clean thoroughly and soak in salted water for 12 hours. Drain and wash, then parboil in salted water with a piece of red pepper pod until tender.
/// We could never find Dr. Pepper in France but it is available in Switzerland (and growing to be more and more available). We did find Rootbeer in France but it was super expensive. ///
Oh, yes ... since the advent of the euro everything is more expensive. The weak dollar should've ensured that the price would fall, not rise ... ah, the mysteries of international trade ! (wide wide grin)
Amerloque hopes the all is well with Pumpkin and her family !
Best,
L'Amerloque
Hello LAS !
/// Mrs. Sunsett loves baseball. Having lived in Atlanta for 20 years, naturally, her team is the Braves. ///
Amerloque remembers the kids on the next block were from Milwaukee. That was in 1956 or 1957. Then the Dodgers moved to LA in '58 ... they soon became LAD fans ... (grin)
/// Braves looked good opening night, only 161 to go. Angels open against Oakland in a little while ///
Strangely, Amerloque didn't follow one particular team last year. Since the O'Malley family sold out the LAD to
a multinational a while back, it just ain't the same ... (sigh) ...
Amerloque is unsure about this year .... (re-sigh) ... doesn't see any "crackerjack" teams around, but it's early in the season
Best,
L'Amerloque
PS: Somehow "popcorn caramelisé" just doesn't have the same resonance as the original "crackerjack". (wide grin)
Amerloque:
Mme. may also be interested in this tidbit of history, owing to the origin of the Hymn of the United States Marine Corps, which of course begins with the refran, "From the Halls of Montezuma ..."
The melody was taken from Offenbach's opera, 'Genevieve de Brabant,' as sung by two gendarmes. We believe the aria of the Marines' Hymn was, in fact, an opera-bouffe composed by Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880), and presented at the Theatre de Bouffes Parisiens, Paris, on November 19, 1859.
Our hymn, properly performed, continues to bring a tear to my eye even today, 46 years after I first enlisted as a private of American Marines.
great links
Harry Carey comes clean on Cracker Jacks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XO_x7U7n8iU&feature=related
Take me out to the ball game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo9fEADUqPs&feature=related
Great stuff. Great memories!
Hi Mustang !
/// Mme. may also be interested in ...///
Mme Amerloque extends her thanks !
The French Wiki has an extensive entry about GdB (a legendary heroine dating from the Middle Ages ...) at http://tinyurl.com/djofyh
There is no score, alas. (grin)
One must remember, too, that Offenbach was the "inventor" of the French cancan !
Wnat actually happened was that a British promoter imported the "cancan" to London and packaged the stage show with music by Offenbach. That is apparently why Offenbach has gone down through history as the "inventor" !
Best,
L'Amerloque
Fascinating, a subject I knew nothing about...now I feel like an authority!
best,
orkneylad
Hi orkneylad !
Many thanks for stopping by !
Baseball is a bit like the Army: (grin) 99% waiting and 1% action.
Word has it over at the DT that we refugees are to rendezvous at your place (grin) ... what is the URL, please ?
Best,
L'Amerloque
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