He Wants to Know Why They Go to Bat

GRINNELL, Iowa —  Michael Abel’s baseball odyssey began 12 years ago when he watched a Taiwanese team celebrate its Little League World Series title with stunning modesty--a simple tip of the cap and bow to fans.

For a then 11-year-old baseball fanatic, the unified and subdued gesture resonated, especially when he compared it to the jubilant “pig pile” of the U.S. winners the previous year.

“It just struck me at the time that obviously these kids came with a different set of priorities and values,” Abel said of the team that beat Shippensburg, Pa., 9-0 in 1990.

Today, as a 23-year-old Grinnell College senior, Abel is about to embark on a yearlong adventure to Japan, southeast Asia and Latin America to take a closer look at foreign cultures through the lens of youth baseball.

For his post-graduate project, he will watch youth baseball games and observe how cultural differences are reflected in the way the game is taught, played and fits into the local and national fabric.

Abel said he also hopes to find that baseball in Osaka, Japan, or Maracaibo, Venezuela, for example, is popular for more reasons than its ties to American culture.

“I really want to get a sense for what baseball means to these people,” said Abel, who will graduate in June with a political science major and a minor in Chinese studies.

“There is the perception that this is solely America’s game. I’m going on the assumption that that’s really not the case. My guess is that baseball will be so ingrained that the cultural differences will be evident in the way the game is played and taught,” he said.

Last month, the former Seattle Mariners batboy was named one of 60 Thomas J. Watson fellows for 2002. The program, started in 1968 by the children of IBM Corp. founder Thomas J. Watson, provides students from 50 small, liberal arts colleges with $22,000 for a year of travel and study abroad.

Abel acknowledges that his research lacks the punch of, say, researching a cure for cancer or improving Third World economies. But his proposal embodied the clever, passionate and novel ideas that Watson fellowship judges find so appealing, said Norvell Brasch, executive director of the program.

“For us, we’re looking for the quintessential ability to capture the unique aspect of a culture through a distinctive lens, and he got it with his proposal,” Brasch said.

Abel said his childhood in Seattle resembled that of any baseball junkie: countless summer hours scooping grounders off the neighborhood diamond, poring over box scores and watching the Little League World Series, a tournament involving teams from across the globe held annually in Williamsport, Pa.

“My feelings for baseball bordered on obsession,” said Abel, who transferred to the liberal arts college, in part, for a chance to play second base for the Pioneers.

But Abel said the fellowship also symbolizes the merger of his other interests. He said he is fascinated with foreign culture. He has applied for a position with the Foreign Service and is also considering graduate studies in foreign affairs.

Abel’s itinerary first takes him to Japan. Then it’s on to Taiwan, whose 17 Little League World Series championships are the most of any country.

He also plans to visit Mexico, Venezuela and Curacao--countries with rich baseball traditions.