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Baseball in the Hawaiian Islands As a Transnational Sport, 1840-1945

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Baseball in the Hawaiian Islands As a Transnational Sport, 1840-1945 BEYOND THE BASELINES: BASEBALL IN THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS AS A TRANSNATIONAL SPORT, 1840-1945 A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‘I AT MĀNOA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN HISTORY DECEMBER 2014 By Michael F. Johnson Dissertation Committee: David Chappell, Chairperson David Hanlon Peter H. Hoffenberg Suzanna Reiss Ty Kāwika Tengan ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are so many people I would like to acknowledge and thank for the assistance, support, and encouragement they have offered as I worked on this project. First and foremost, I want to thank my parents, Beth and Dave, my brother, Andrew, my sister, Annie, as well as the rest of my family, especially Rita and Ed and Janet and Dave for all of their encouragement and support. At the University of Hawai‘i, I would like to thank my dissertation committee members David Hanlon, Peter Hoffenberg, Suzanna Reiss, and Ty Tengan for their valuable feedback and constructive comments regarding my efforts throughout this process. I would especially like to thank my advisor David Chappell for his insightful critiques of numerous drafts of this dissertation and greatly helping me to hone my arguments. In addition to my committee members, I would also like to recognize the help of my former dissertation advisor, Jerry Bentley, who guided me not only to this topic, but helped me sharpen my own understanding of world history. Thank you to all of my other teachers throughout my academic journey who have each inspired me in their own way to pursue my own career as a teacher. And thank you to my many students who have kept me sharp and constantly on my toes in the classroom. Among the faculty and staff at the University of Hawai‘i, I could not have navigated this process without the assistance and knowledge of Susan Carlson; thank you Sue for all of your help. I would also be remiss to not mention the support of Ned Bertz, Matthew Lauzon, Njoroge Njoroge, Matthew Romaniello, John Rosa, Kelli Nakamura, Ryan Koo, Pat Patterson, Mieko Matsumoto, and Cynthia Smith who, at numerous times, have offered me help and guidance through the world of academia, so thank you to each of you. To all of my friends and classmates who I have met along the way, especially Tomiko Ballantyne, Marc and Colleen Cardella, Holly Coleman, Erin Cozens, Jared Doucette, Phil Drake, Ko Khounthasenh, Monica LaBriola, Josh Mika, Lance and Kyla Nolde, Deanna Ramsay, Steve Redlew, Betsy and Orion Shultz, Derek Taira, James Viernes, Ron Williams, Danielle Young, and Mike Xanthopoulos thank you for all of your help, but most of all for helping to distract me from working. To the incredible folks at the Hawai‘i State Archives, as well as the staffs of the Hawaiian and Pacific Collections of the Hamilton Library, the Hawaiian Mission Houses Museum Archives, the Bishop Museum Archives, the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai‘i, the National Baseball Hall of Fame, the Bancroft Library, and the Springfield College Archives, as well as Pal Eldredge, Michael Okihiro, and Nelson Okino, thank you for all of your assistance in helping me find and make sense of many of the materials that contributed to this dissertation. Additionally, thank you to the Department of History and the Colleges of Arts and Sciences at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, the Topsfield Historical Society, and especially Carol Mon Lee and the Jerry H. Bentley Fellowship in World History for the financial support that enabled me to complete this journey. And finally, I want to thank Drew Gonrowski for all of the above and everything else; thank you so much. i ABSTRACT This study traces the historical development of baseball in the Hawaiian Islands as a transnational sport that, between 1840 and 1945, reflected several world historical processes. These processes include cultural exchange and diffusion, identity formation, imperialism, and migrations. As the position of the Hawaiian Islands shifted within a global context during this time period, so too did the development of baseball change course. While recognizing the important role of the United States in the growth of baseball abroad, the world-historical approach of this dissertation focuses on a range of other influences and discusses how the development of baseball is linked to the ways transnational forces were negotiated within local conditions in the Hawaiian Islands. To that end, this study utilizes extensive newspaper research, including Hawaiian-language sources, to frame the sport’s growth within a context of larger influences operating on and within the islands. In doing so, it highlights the involvement of non-American actors and groups who are often elided or obscured by narratives that emphasize the role of the United States in baseball’s development. By considering transnational and world-historical processes, this study frames the history of baseball in the Hawaiian Islands in a global context rather than solely an American context and offers comparisons to baseball’s growth elsewhere in the world. In doing so, this study shows not only the value of sports to the study of world history, but the value of a world- historical perspective to the study of sports. And finally, by providing an in-depth survey of baseball in the Hawaiian Islands, this study adds nuance to the understandings of social interactions in the islands between 1840 and 1945. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................................i ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................................ii A NOTE ON LANGUAGE ............................................................................................................iv INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................................................................1 Brief History of the Hawaiian Islands .................................................................................8 Why Look at Baseball?.......................................................................................................15 Structure of this Study .......................................................................................................23 CHAPTER 1 SPORTS AND WORLD HISTORY IN OCEANIA .....................................................................31 Sports and Identity Formation ...........................................................................................34 Sports and Cultural Diffusion and Exchange .....................................................................48 Sports and Imperialism ......................................................................................................59 Sports and Migrations ........................................................................................................73 Conclusion .........................................................................................................................83 CHAPTER 2 THE DEVELOPMENT OF BASEBALL IN THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS (1840-1890)...........86 Origin Stories and Americanization Narratives .................................................................88 Organized Clubs, Modernity, and Masculinity (1867-1887) ...........................................108 Politics in Baseball and Baseball in Politics (1888-1889) ...............................................128 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................143 CHAPTER 3 THE HAWAIIAN BASE BALL ASSOCIATION (1890-1895) .................................................145 Background of the Hawaiian Base Ball Association .......................................................150 Opening Day for the HBBA! (1890) ...............................................................................159 Turnover Between and Beyond the Baselines (1891-1892) ............................................173 Baseball, Political Overthrow, and Provisional Government (1893) ..............................188 Baseball, Republic, and Rebellion (1894-1895)...............................................................201 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................215 CHAPTER 4 THE EXPANSION OF BASEBALL IN THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS (1895-1945) ................217 Baseball, Annexation, and Americanization ....................................................................218 Traveling Teams and Transnational Players ....................................................................243 Baseball, Militarization, and World War .........................................................................264 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................277 CHAPTER 5 A TRANSNATIONAL SPORT: CONTEXTS AND COMPARISONS ....................................280 The Spread of Baseball Around the World (1840-1945) .................................................283 Comparable Colonial Contexts in the USA, the Philippines, and Taiwan ......................300 Colonial Contrast but Transnational Similarities: The Case of Cuba ..............................314 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................335 CONCLUSION TWO TOURING TEAMS AS
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