Baseball diplomacy?
Sports should not be used for political purposes
When a big sports event like the Major League Baseball (MLB) World Tour Seoul Series is approaching, politicians and government officials are tempted to use the opportunity to take advantage of it for political and diplomatic purposes.
But such an attempt, known in the media as sports diplomacy, is prone to backfire rather than succeed.
During the Seoul Series, the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres will compete in two games slated for March 20 and 21 at Gocheok Sky Dome baseball stadium in Seoul. It is the MLB’s first opener to be held in Seoul. The Seoul Series is part of the MLB’s global expansion programs. During this season, the MLB will also hold games in Monterey, Mexico, in April and London in June.
In addition to enthusiastic fans, the historical sport event will bring officials of Seoul, Washington and Tokyo together in the stadium, too.
According to diplomatic sources, U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel and Japanese Ambassador to Korea Koichi Aiboshi will be at the opening game together on March 20. Chung Byung-won, South Korea’s deputy minister for political affairs, will also be there.
The Yoon Suk Yeol government seems to expect the three officials watching the game together would send a symbolic message that the trilateral partnership between South Korea, the U.S. and Japan is on course and expanding into sports.
What happened in Japan demonstrates the opposite side of the scene, proving sports diplomacy has done a disservice to the politicians who have tried to push for it.
In February, a Japanese media outlet reported that Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida considered visiting Seoul on March 20 for a summit with President Yoon Suk Yeol and the two leaders would watch the MLB game together. The Japanese leader then faced fierce criticism. Kishida was depicted on social media as a selfish leader who tried to use sports as a means of boosting his lackluster approval ratings. Some fans urged him to stop trying to use Shohei Ohtani for political purposes.
The presidential office rebuffed any possibility of Kishida’s Seoul visit on March 20, confirming that he would not visit South Korea within this month.
This kind of diplomacy backfires because the public tends to feel disgust for politicians who seek to exploit popular sports to their own ends.
It is the private sector — in this case Coupang, a popular e-commerce company in Korea, and MLB leaders who agreed to hold the opening games in Seoul after rounds of negotiations — that laid the groundwork to make the big event happen, but, out of the blue, government officials are trying to be part of it to take credit for its success.
Fans should be able to enjoy their favorite games without being disturbed by government intervention.
As a sports event, the Seoul Series has a lot to thrill baseball fans in Korea.
Both teams are star-studded. Dodgers outfielder Mookie Betts, Padres’ shortstop and outfielder Fernando Tatis Jr. and slugger Manny Machado, to name a few, are set to entertain fans with their fascinating play. Baseball fans will also watch Japanese-born superstar Shohei Ohtani, the highest-in-demand player in the league, playing for the Dodgers, while South Korea’s first gold glove winner Kim Ha-seong will play against the Dodgers.
The Dodgers bear very special meaning to Korean baseball fans. They came to develop their bond with the LA-based club after South Korea’s first Major Leaguer Park Chan-ho began his career in the U.S. big league in 1994.
All these and others highlight the merits of the incoming baseball events. Yet they need to serve as festivals for baseball fans and general audiences as purely sport events, not tainted by any political motives.
Sport is sport and diplomacy is diplomacy.