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Washington. Baseball players often say the best approach is to keep it simple. See the ball, hit the ball. Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr. has the same philosophy in mind for a sports exchange with Japanese children affected by this year’s earthquake and tsunami.

“Maybe the value of sport is to bring people together,” he said on Tuesday. “Sometimes the escape that sports can provide. Sometimes the distraction of what it can provide.”

Sixteen teenagers and four coaches from Japan are participating in a two-week exchange in the United States, starting with a meeting with Ripken and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Other highlights include a clinic at Ripken’s baseball academy, a clinic at Camden Yards where the group will also watch a Baltimore Orioles game and an appearance at the Little League World Series, where one of teens will throw out the first pitch for Japan’s game next Thursday.

Then in November, Ripken plans to travel to Japan to meet with youth affected by the earthquake and tsunami. It will be Ripken’s third trip as a State Department public diplomacy envoy, following visits to China in 2007 and Nicaragua in 2008.

“I wasn’t sure what I was getting into,” he said. “But I always believed that sports was a universal language, and it does bring people together, and I was glad to play that role.”

In China, Ripken said playing with the children helped him connect with them, despite the language barrier.

“Many people in China thought a person of my status would have somebody else actually do the work,” said Ripken, who played in a Major League Baseball record 2,632 consecutive games. “But the real joy is in getting down on your knees and flipping a ball to a kid. Getting them to smile and like it.”

The Japanese delegation includes eight boys and eight girls, aged 13 to 17. Two of the boys lost their fathers in the disaster, one boy had his home washed away and five kids were students of an American teacher who perished.

Ann Stock, assistant secretary of state for education and cultural affairs, said Ripken was a natural choice to lead the effort.

“He’s the ultimate team player,” said Stock, who oversees the sports diplomacy office known as SportsUnited. “He’s a hero to young people.”

The United States has used sports diplomacy for decades, most famously in the “Ping-Pong diplomacy” with China in the early 1970s that thawed relations and helped pave the way for a historic visit by President Richard Nixon.

Associated Press