Team Coverage

Media attention on Asian athletes playing for American sports teams can lead the way to inclusive coverage across the board

by Ken Yamada

The next time Ichiro Suzuki steps up to bat, a legion of fans will be rooting for him, but not because he's a Seattle Mariner. Rather, because he's Asian, and by extension, represents to them a powerful media image.

News about "Ichiro," as he likes being called, now regularly appears not just in Seattle's local newspapers, but on sports pages across the country, as well as almost nightly on ESPN SportsCenter and other programs. Most recently, the former batting champion in Japan has been leading the American League in runs, hits, and stolen bases.

The effects of Ichiro-mania on Asian Americans, I believe, are rippling across this country, spurred by the budding emergence of other Asian athletes in American mainstream sports, such as the 7-foot-1-inch Wang Zhizhi from China, who now plays for the Dallas Mavericks. Last year's American League rookie of the year and Ichiro teammate Kazuhiro Sasaki has been leading the league in saves. At one point, five Asian men were part of a 40-man Boston Red Sox team. Hopefully, America's sports media will understand its role in helping to broaden the ethnic flavor of major league sports and adapt to the evolving tastes of new fans.

I'm reminded of a time 40 years ago when just about the only Asian male on American television was a servant named "Hop Sing" on the Western drama "Bonanza." I mention this character now, because for me and other Asian Americans my age, that degrading image remains seared in our memory. Back then when I was a young boy, the heroes, the leading men, the athletes, didn't have an Asian face.

That message can play havoc with a person's psyche. I know it did to me. There's much to be said about role models in the media, and a lack of them. I remember when, after college graduation, I took my first trip to Japan, and saw on television an Asian male anchoring the news. For the first time I was struck by the feeling that maybe someday I could appear on television, a thought that never occurred to me at home.

Asian Americans have had our stars in recent years — Kristi Yamaguchi, Michelle Kwan, Amy Chow, Michael Chang, and others — with accompanying media coverage. But they tended to excel in individual sports such as tennis and figure skating, where success may be attributed to unique physical gifts or hard work and dedication. It's not quite like the All-American sports — baseball, basketball, and football — those team sports that are so ingrained into this culture's fabric and considered American through-and-through.

"It makes me feel a sense of pride when I see all these Asian athletes do well," Alex Wong, 19, a sophomore at MIT told the Boston Globe last month. "It shows Asian men can make it in sports."

The San Francisco Chronicle in an April 15 story wrote: "The appearance of more Asian players in American professional sports leagues is being hailed from high school locker rooms to area baseball diamonds, and is being trumpeted by local ethnic media outlets. It represents a proud moment for Asian Americans, who find themselves by extension more included in the American cultural tapestry."

"People appreciate that there is finally a Chinese player here," Larry Yee, boys' basketball coach at San Francisco's George Washington High School told the Chronicle. "You live in America and you watch the game at a high level, and now you can watch an Asian and feel closer to the game knowing that a Chinese guy can make it in the NBA."

If Ichiro, Wang and others make it big in America, then other Asian players surely will follow them into the big leagues. They should have plenty of potential fans waiting for them. According to the 2000 Census, there are 10.2 million Asian Americans, up 48 percent from a decade ago. By comparison, whites grew by 6 percent and blacks by 16 percent during the same decade.

Of course, U.S. professional sports started becoming more ethnically diverse years ago. Players have come from Mexico, South America, the Caribbean, Africa and Europe. Their fans have shown that, in addition to appreciating great athletic ability, they'll root for players who share similar ethnic backgrounds and ancestry. I hope NBC, with its America-centric thinking, remembers that lesson the next time it broadcasts the Olympics.

Sports draw different people for different reasons. In the end, we're all rooting for the home team.

Ken Yamada is a former senior editor at Red Herring. He has worked as a reporter at The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Newsday and The Los Angeles Times. He also worked in Silicon Valley for several years as a writer and editor for computer publications, primarily Computer Reseller News and Solutions Integrator Magazine.