Baseball in Palau: Passion for the Game from 1925-2007 (review)

Fifteen years ago, I returned to the United States after living in Japan for two years. At a major baseball card show, I asked dealers if they had any Japanese cards. More than one laughed at me. "They play baseball in Japan? You're kidding, right?"

Today, this response would be inconceivable. Hideo Nomo, Ichiro Suzuki, Chan Ho Park, Chien-Ming Wang and others have shown Americans that the game is played in Asia and played well. The World Baseball Classic has shown that baseball thrives, not only in Latin America and Asia, but also in the Netherlands, Australia, Italy, and South Africa. Recently, articles in the New York Times have focused on baseball in China and India. Baseball is a truly global sport.

Donald Shuster's Baseball in Palau: Passion for the Game introduces readers to the little-known history of the game in the Republic of Palau in Micronesia. This volume will be greatly appreciated by all fans and players from Palau and will be a valuable starting point for future researchers of Micronesian baseball, but Shuster fails to make the subject interesting to a wider audience.

Although the Table of Contents lists eleven items, Baseball in Palau contains five topical sections. After the acknowledgements and uninformative introduction, the first section, entitled "Baseball During Japanese Times," consists of a page of biographical facts about Motoji Kono, "the father of baseball in Palau," an interesting interview with a former player, and an analysis of an old photograph. The shortcomings of this section are indicative of the book's overall problems. There is no narrative or analysis of how baseball came to the island, why and how it was adopted, how it fit into local culture, and when and how the leagues were created. It is just a litany of anecdotal information, leaving the reader frustrated with unanswered questions.

Section two consists of 117 pages covering each season from 1947 to 2006. These summaries are disjointed without an overarching narrative. Some seasons are written by former players, some are reprinted newspaper accounts, and others are created by the author. Most of these accounts merely list facts, game summaries, and team rosters. Few stories could appeal to those not involved in the league.

The third section focuses on the Micronesian and Mobil Games, tournaments that allow the Palauan teams to test their skill against rival nations. Once again, the entries consist of detailed game summaries that make for dull reading, with one exception. Bob Coldeen offers a lively discussion of how Palau brought home their first gold medal in the 1969 Micronesian Games.

Next is a series of interviews with former players and managers. Although the interviews vary in quality, this section is the most interesting and informative in the book—the highlight being a long interview with former manager Johnson Toribiong. These individuals only occasionally dwell on details of long-dead games, but instead discuss coaching strategies and approaches particular to Palau, the importance of the game to the local communities, and even the use of magic in baseball. The interviews would be even more interesting if they were accompanied by short biographical introductions. As an outsider, I am unaware of the accomplishments and expertise of the person being interviewed.

The final section consists of four short chapters (Tributes, Baseball and Magic, Team Lineups, and Photographs) that supply information not easily incorporated elsewhere into the book's format.

Donald Shuster should be commended for his hard work and passion for compiling this large amount of information. The intended audience is obviously the former players and fans of Palauan baseball, and they will not be disappointed as they read about the past triumphs and heartbreaking defeats.

A more general reader, however, will be frustrated by the book's provincialism. No effort is made to reach an audience outside of Palau. To begin with, there is no discussion of where Palau is located or...