ST. PETERSBURG
Rays starter Chris Archer shared as much knowledge as he could during a 12-day December visit to South Africa, teaching young kids about baseball in general and providing teenage players with specifics about pitching technique, training methods and other such tips. • But as Archer reflected this week on the Major League Baseball-organized Ambassador trip, it seemed clear that he gained — intellectually, emotionally, and philosophically — much more than he gave. • Most rewarding? • "Just their overall love and passion for life," Archer said. "We all get caught up in things, everybody around is on social media and using technology, but they don't need that to be stimulated. It was just like reiterating that the simplest things are the greatest things in life. …
"As far as baseball is concerned, the passion they had for something that is not so popular. They're not sitting there thinking they're going to get drafted or sign a million-dollar contract. They're just playing because they love baseball."
Archer went to Johannesburg and Cape Town as part of the staff working the MLB African Elite Camp, which included about 40 top youth players from throughout Africa, plus put on a youth clinic in the disadvantaged urban Alexandra Township and talked with several other groups.
He was surprised, given the low profile baseball has there, at some of the questions he got, including specifics about teammate Evan Longoria and ex-Ray David Price. (Also, seeing one child, whose family relocated from the Tampa Bay area, in a Carl Crawford Rays jersey.)
And he was pleasantly relieved at some of the things he wasn't asked — as he usually is when speaking to kids in the States — such as how much he makes, how nice a car he drives, how big his house is.
"People were asking me, 'So you play baseball, but what is your real job?' " Archer said. "They were like, tell me what your mind-set is in situations, tell me about your journey to the major leagues, tell me what America is like. They don't care about material things. It was nice."
Archer said he saw enough raw talent and athleticism to believe that with investments of time and money in coaching and training facilities, South Africa could become a hotbed for talent.
Given his own unique biracial background — a white mother and black father, and raised by his maternal grandparents — Archer was interested to get his own sense of race relations. Noting it had been only 20 years, and barely a generation, since the end of apartheid — which he called "terrible … it was not quite slavery but it was more than segregation" — he was pleased to see the kids "being cool" with each other and hearing how well they got along.
"I feel like the best history you can get is from native South Africans, whether they are white or black," he said. "You can learn from both sides, and especially me, because I can relate from both sides. I read, I did a little research, I remember some things from high school, but it was cool to ask their view … and hear their accounts."
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Explore all your optionsFor Archer, who is always thirsting for knowledge and enrichment, the trip may be the first of many.
"It opened my mind," he said, "to see the world."
Contact Marc Topkin at mtopkin@tampabay.com. Follow @TBTimes_Rays.