More than a Game: Cultural Exchange and Geopolitics in the Little League World Series

For the next week, sit back, relax, and enjoy the sport of youth baseball, with a little dose of cross-cultural exchange, and international politics on the side.

For most of my life, watching the Little League World Series (LLWS) has been an end of summer/beginning of a new school year ritual. I’ve enjoyed baseball at all levels in many capacities over the years—as a player, card collector, umpire, coach, spectator, and indeed even as a historian and social scientist.

The LLWS is more than a series of games–it’s an international experience that facilitates cultural exchange and highlights the dynamics of geopolitics today. 

According to the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, “Sports Diplomacy has emerged as an integral part of efforts to build ever-strengthening relations between the United States and other nations. Sports diplomacy uses the universal passion for sports as a way to transcend linguistic and sociocultural differences and bring people together.” 

At the LLWS, young athletes from around the world gather in Williamsport, PA where they live, eat, play, and compete together. The experience fosters cultural exchange as players from diverse backgrounds and languages trade tokens of friendship, such as pins or flags. In the media coverage, participating teams and their families and fans showcase the unique cultural traditions of their home countries. The actions and interactions of these Little Leaguers contribute to breaking down stereotypes and dispelling misconceptions, helping to create a more harmonious global community. 

If there’s anything in this world that should be apolitical, surely it’s a game of baseball among 12 year olds. Still, the underlying currents of geopolitics are hard to miss. 

In the American bracket, a spirit of regionalism dominates among fans until the championship game. Then, Americans of all regions lay aside their differences and unite in a moment of patriotism. Even so, there are underlying political questions that sometimes rise to the surface. There are questions, for example, about representation and underrepresentation of African Americans and other historically-marginalized groups. 

Little League Baseball introduced the "Urban Initiative" in 1999 to increase baseball’s presence in central city neighborhoods. In 2002, the Little Leaguers from Harlem, NY became the first team from this program to reach Williamsport. In 2014, the Jackie Robinson West Little League from Chicago won the U.S. bracket. Rest assured, the entire nation was behind them in the championship game against South Korea. After all, Americans love a good Cinderella story. But when the team's title was later stripped after rule violations by league officials were discovered (players who lived outside the local Little League boundaries), Americans were divided on the matter of consequences. For the “rules are rules” crowd, there was sympathy for the players, but law and order must prevail. For others, punishing youngsters for adult actions was an affront to social justice. 

In the International bracket, Latin American teams have enjoyed greater success in the LLWS in recent years. In 2001, the Caribbean region was first given an automatic berth. Previously, Caribbean teams competed for a berth in the Latin American region. The first nine Caribbean championships were captured by Curaçao, who won the 2004 Little League World Series. 

This year marks the first year a team from Cuba has reached the Williamsport tournament. For those of us who grew up during the Cold War, exposing Cuban youngsters to American capitalism would have been unthinkable. But Cuba and the United States restored diplomatic relations in 2015 – a departure from decades of hostility since the Cuban Revolution in 1959. 

Media coverage by ESPN/ABC of this Little League milestone will surely avoid highlighting the continued deterioration of Cuba’s centrally-planned economy. As Will Freeman has written in a recent article for the Council on Foreign Relations, “Even as mass protests and record-setting abstention rates signal widespread discontent, Cuba’s repressive, one-party system closes all routes to bottom-up change. Cubans are more likely to continue voting with their feet as they seek to escape economic chaos and repression.”

Speaking of the Cold War, Chinese Taipei has returned to the LLWS for the second consecutive year, and 31st time in history.  Of course, Cold War era kids like me knew them as Taiwan in the 1980s, when players cranked out 225 ft. home runs left and right and dominated the LLWS. The country holds the record for 17 LLWS championships—more than double the next-best team. Today, Little League follows other international organizations in referring to the team as Chinese Taipei. 

The origins of this naming convention debate stem from China’s Civil War (1927-1949)— a struggle for control of China fought between the Nationalists and the Communists. In 1949, the Communists gained the upper hand and established the People's Republic of China on the mainland. The Nationalists retreated to the island of Taiwan.  The People's Republic of China claimed to be the legitimate government of all of China, including Taiwan. The Republic of China (Taiwan), however, maintained its own government, and argued that they represented the legitimate government of China before the communist takeover.

Writing in The Diplomat in 2013, Samuel Chi noted that during Taiwan's period of Little League dominance (1960s-1980s), their victories held significant importance beyond just the game. As the country secured its first LLWS championship in 1969, it was facing expulsion from the United Nations. The U.S. cut official ties with Taiwan to recognize the People’s Republic of China in 1979. “In this crucible Taiwan’s youth baseball dominance stood as a beacon in the island’s uncertain future,” Chi explained. “The young boys were playing for much more than a sponsor and a paycheck; national pride was at stake. At the Little League World Series, they weren’t playing for Taipei or Kaohsiung or 7-Eleven or Brother Hotel. They were playing for Taiwan.” 

One final geopolitical note from the European theater this year: ESPN’s coverage of the tournament featured a story about a player from the Czech Republic team who came to the country as a refugee from Ukraine. The boy’s dad has stayed in Ukraine–as he is deemed strategically important. But mom and son fled to the Czech Republic, “when armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine began” early in 2022. Of course, armed conflict doesn’t just begin ex nihilo. The carefully-worded statements by ESPN obscure the well-established consensus that Russian forces invaded Ukraine when Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized a “special military operation” against the country. 

So, for the next week, sit back, relax, and enjoy the sport of youth baseball, with a little dose of cross-cultural exchange, and international politics on the side. And, of course, don’t forget to “root, root for the home team.”