Brief Histoy of Baseball in Peru

Baseball is a sport with a long tradition in Peru. It was first introduced in Lima, the capital, in the very beginning of the the 20th century. Two were the main sources of influence: American and Japanese. Americans introduced the game in the Peruvian port of Callao (probably the most important commercial center of South America at the time). The game soon sparked a fever among the young men, who organized themselves in teams with the cooperation of American business people, commercial agents, and even navy and air force officals who played for those teams during their stay in our country. Just a few miles away from Callao, Japanese and Japanese decendents started to practice the sport in the capital's district of Jesus María. In almost no time, the first tournaments between Callao and Lima teams started to dominate the sports scene. The glorious matches of this golden age of baseball were recorded on the Headlines of the most important Peruvian newspapers.

In 1926, The Peruvian Baseball Federation was founded and the sport started to spread rapidly and seemed to be destined to become our national sport. However, the economic crisis of 1929 hit Peru particularily hard and trade between Peru and the US was almost inexistent; as a result the American National pastime lost its main sponsor in Peru. Just a few years later, the best Peruvian soccer team ever played in the Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany. Many thought Peru had to win the gold medal but German nationalist interests prevented that. The whole nation was indignated and showed its inconditional support to soccer.

During the 1950's though and against all odds, baseball continued spreading and the number of teams continued to increase. Other districts became involved in the local tournaments and stadiums which were originally disigned to host soccer matches had to be adapted to hold baseball games for the large number of fans who went to watch.

In the late 60's and early 70's, the military government became really interested in promoting the competitive level of all our athletes in the different sports. This is when the Cubans came to play a major role in the development of baseball in our country. With their help we were able to compete internationally and even beat national teams with more rooted baseball tradition than ours.

In the early 1980's, with the reintroduction of Democracy (and this is sad to say), the political pressure of the international soccer organizations on the Peruvian social and political scene became so big that soccer was explicitly declared the Peruvian National sport, and whoever practiced any other sport was considered alienated from the new democratic spirit of the country. This was devastating not only for baseball but all the other sports which had flourished in the previous years. International Soccer CEOs succeeded in persuading the government to transfer all financial resources to the Soccer Federation, resources which were formerly destined to promote all sports. This is the time when the cliche "soccer is for men and voleyball is for women" was fabricated and popularized, even when it by no means reflected the Peruvian sport tradition.

Almost heroically and with the help of baseball enthusiasts such as Mr. Gerardo Maruy, who recently received the highest distinction given by the Peruvian Government to those who excelled in the sports scene, baseball managed to survive through the critical periods of the years 1980's and 1990's. Paradoxically, the Peruvian national soccer team has not been able to go further than elimination matches for the World Cup ever since 1986, and right now Peruvian soccer is rated as one of the worst worldwide.

Currently, the Peruvian Baseball Federation is in a process of reconstruction and formalization. Our club "Club de Béisbol y Sóftbol Camagüey", though having a long tradition in the Peruvian Baseball and Softball scene, is just the second to have achieved the legal status required by Peruvian Law.

Times are different now, and we see with hope great chances of growth as more and more kids become interested in baseball again. Just recently Mr. Troy Williams from the Pittsburg Pirates (at the right of the president of Camagüey Baseball and Softball Club, Mr. Paul Gonzales) honored us with his visit. He motivated us to work harder since he saw a lot of potential in our kids. He forsees that in a not so distant future a Peruvian baseball player could succeed in professional baseball in the US and why not the Major Leagues.

But as in the early times of baseball history in Peru, we need help from our former baseball partners to get us going again. Our reality is that many of the kids don't have the financial resources to pay for their instruction, much less are they able to get good baseball gear. On the other hand, we need more and better teaching for our coaches, umpires and senior staff. If anyone reading this article is interested in supporting our club in any way (becoming one of our partners, sponsoring a kid, donating materials, sharing instructional information, coming to Peru to give a clinic, etc, please contact us at camagueybeisbolclub@gmail.com