From Mauritius to the Mariners: UW staffer makes up for childhood without baseball

By Nancy Wick
University Week

When UW staffer Jenny Mao and her husband attend a Mariner game, they arrive about three hours early. “Then he hands me a ball and a pen and I go down to stand by one of the dugouts,” Mao says.

Her mission: to collect autographs during batting practice. Together with at least 1,000 other people, she shouts at the players and thrusts balls and gloves out to be signed. And she’s done pretty well. Her collection includes Aaron Sele, John Olerud, Freddie Garcia and Kazuhiro Sasaki. But that isn’t all.

At home, atop the TV, are four bobble head dolls collected by the couple. They also have the two miniature train cars given out at Safeco Field, Mariner trading cards and a pin collection. Mao’s wardrobe includes a Mariner windbreaker, cap, ponytail holder and shoelaces. She also has the Mariner logo transfer for her face. “I’m saving that for the World Series,” she says.

We should point out here that Mao is not an employee of Intercollegiate Athletics. Her job is to do personal and career counseling in the Student Counseling Center. Nor did she grow up hanging around ballparks, treasuring souvenir balls and dreaming about her heroes. In fact, where Mao grew up, baseball wasn’t generally played. Mauritius, an island in the Indian Ocean, was colonized first by the Dutch, then the French and finally the British - nations without a great deal of enthusiasm for baseball.

Jenny Mao, a counselor in the Student Counseling Center, with some of her Mariner memorabilia.

Mao arrived there at the age of 1 after her mother - a native of Mauritius who was studying medicine in China - was forced to flee China during the Cultural Revolution. Left behind was Mao’s father, a Chinese national who wasn’t allowed to leave. Mao and her brother lived on Mauritius for 10 years, with French as their first language and English their second. They also learned the local Creole, which includes elements of Hindi.

“Mauritius is a land of immigrants with a lot of variety in ethnicity and religion,” Mao says. “It’s independent now, a member of the British Commonwealth. But with its mix of people I learned about tolerance early on.”

Her experience with diversity didn’t end on Mauritius. Her father had left China four years after his family did and moved to Hong Kong. Her mother joined him there right away, leaving the children with their grandparents. Mao and her brother moved to Hong Kong six years later, meeting a father they couldn’t remember, who spoke Chinese.

“It was difficult, adjusting to having a father in my life again,” Mao says. “I went to secondary school in Hong Kong and learned to speak enough Chinese to get along, though I can’t read or write the language.”

She also got a sort of introduction to baseball there, playing on a softball team coached by a Canadian.

Her schooling ended at 16, but Mao wasn’t ready for college, so she came to the United States on an exchange program, landing in a small town in northern Michigan called Kalkaska. She was more likely exposed to skiing and hockey there than baseball, but Mao says it was a wonderful experience. So when it came time to go to college she looked for a place away from the big city and found Pullman, home of Washington State University.

Mao admits to being a Cougar fan, but until 1995 she didn’t really follow sports. The Mariners’ magic season that year got her interested. “They had that great run to the playoffs, and I got hooked,” Mao says.

And indirectly, she owes her marriage to the Mariners. She met her husband in college, but the two didn’t date then. They were friends who worked together in student government. They went their separate ways after graduation and didn’t meet again until they attended a mutual friend’s party in 1996. Mao mentioned that she was looking for someone to go to a baseball game with her and her now-husband offered. They’ve been together ever since.

Her husband is a Vietnamese American. The oldest son in his family, he was sent to the United States with a family friend in 1975 at the age of 8 and grew up without his family. He later successfully sponsored both his siblings and his parents’ entry to the States, and this summer the couple made a trip to both Mauritius and Vietnam. “But I haven’t learned Vietnamese,” Mao says. “It’s just too hard.”

She says her diverse experience has stood her in good stead at work. “It helps me connect with all kinds of people,” she says. But it also doesn’t hurt that she can break the ice with a friendly chat about baseball.

Mao and her husband attend about 12 to 15 Mariner games every year, planning their ticket purchases around team giveaways. And this year, they’ve scored tickets to all the playoff games to the tune of $740 each (that’s for seats on the 300 level of Safeco Field). Mao says they rationalize the purchase by saying they don’t otherwise spend much on entertainment.

“We get our money back for any games they don’t play, but I hope they go all the way,” she says.

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