Major League Baseball 2013: bobbleheads and fireworks galore for fans

8. Cultural diversity

WILFREDO LEE/AP/FILE
Marlins fans celebrate Cinco de Mayo.

For people who like to celebrate the rich cross-section of backgrounds and ethnicities represented in modern major-league cities, baseball has turned an attentive ear. Many teams have responded with heritage-themed promotions, with Hispanic Heritage events a fairly common way of spotlighting the culture of a growing cohort of fans.

The Dodgers, as you might expect, play up L.A.’s Hispanic history. For the past 15 years La Gran Fiesta has capped off a season-long series of family-friendly events that feature Latino culture. But even teams far from the US southern border have gotten into the act. The Kansas City Royals hold an annual Viva los Royals celebration on Cinco de Mayo, with live Latino music, dancing, and a salsa-making showdown before the game.

When it comes to diversity of such celebrations, the Phillies and Marlins are among the leaders. In Philadelphia, Asian-Pacific, Irish, African-American, Italian, Jewish, Latino, and German cultures all are spotlighted. Miami plays to its special demographics with games that highlight the area’s Dominican, Cuban, Jewish, Venezuelan, Colombian, Puerto Rican, and Central American heritages.

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Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

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If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

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