Away game: Cortland team hits homerun in Russia

One sports writer called it “To Russia with glove.” An academic dubbed it “baseball diplomacy.” But, whatever the characterization, the 24 players, coaches and staff from SUNY Cortland’s baseball team — the Red Dragons — learned during two weeks in Russia that their favorite sport can be about more than hitting, pitching and catching.

The Red Dragons are coached by UUP member Joseph Brown, who just completed his third year at the helm of what is arguably SUNY’s most successful baseball program ever. Cortland has appeared in nine consecutive NCAA Division III tournaments and six College World Series in the last seven years. But, for Brown, the “ultimate road trip” to Moscow and St. Petersburg in June wasn’t about wins and losses.

“The trip to Russia was more than baseball,” Brown said in the press box overlooking the Cortland baseball diamond. “It was an education of where Russia is right now in history.”

The baseball goodwill trip was born out of earlier discussions that included UUP activist Henry Steck and John Ryder, a former UUPer who is now Cortland’s dean of arts and sciences. Steck and Ryder are leaders in the college’s Project for Eastern and Central Europe and, by association, in SUNY’s new Center on the United States and Russia. SUNY has the oldest direct university-to-university relationship between the U.S. and Russia, which began in 1976. The center was established as a result of that relationship to promote educational exchanges, research and other initiatives between the state university and Russian institutions of higher learning.

“Baseball was a piece of a much larger program to build bridges between the U.S. and Russia after the Cold War,” said Steck, a political scientist.

According to UUPer Francis Elia, Cortland’s sports information director, using SUNY baseball as a diplomatic tool was a natural: Ryder is general manager of the Cortland Apples, a “wood bat” summer league, and SUNY Chancellor Robert King, who raised about $50,000 in private dollars to fund the trip, is a baseball enthusiast who plays in two adult leagues in the Albany area. King was an honorary team captain and first-base coach. He was also inserted into the lineup as a pinch hitter in the first game, striking out against a pitcher Elia said has since been drafted by the Seattle Mariners.

Meanwhile, for Brown, Elia and their student athletes, the two weeks in Russia were an exciting and enlightening mix of sports and culture. They played four games against Moscow State University, St. Petersburg University and the Russian National Team; they conducted two baseball clinics for 9- to 11-year-old kids, leaving them with SUNY Cortland T-shirts and hats; and they took in the sites, including the Kremlin, Red Square, the Bolshoi Ballet, Lenin’s Tomb and Victory Park, where Russia honors its World War II dead.

And, while the Red Dragons played, the world watched. The games received press attention from the international media, including CNN, the Moscow Times, the Associated Press and CBS News.

“I was in Prague, in my role with the Project on Eastern and Central Europe, and turned on CNN to see the Red Dragons’ trip as the lead-in to the Bush-Putin summit,” Steck recalled.

“We all felt good for SUNY and good for Cortland,” he added.

But for all the fanfare and the historic and cultural sites, Brown said his team’s experience was highlighted by the warm reception the Russian people gave to the Americans. Also, the obvious societal contrasts.

“The Russians are a proud people who are going through a transition,” Brown observed, citing a modest lifestyle reflective of the country’s struggling economy.

For the record, SUNY Cortland was 4-1 on its ultimate road trip, outscoring its opponents 42-24. But for Brown, Elia, Ryder and their charges, the scores were secondary. Instead, it was the social and political hurdles the Russians maneuvered that impressed the New Yorkers the most.

“Our guys were a little intimidated for a couple of innings,” Brown said. “After all, it was little Cortland, N.Y., against all of Russia. But, by the end of the games, I think they had a better appreciation of us and we had a better appreciation of what they’ve done just to get to play baseball.”

— Frank Maurizio