Accidental Athlete: Bad Bunny

As you watch Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl Halftime Show, remember: this moment has been years in the making - not just musically, but culturally - and that he is a proper sports fan.

Bad Bunny and two Houston Astros players - two Astros players -- catcher Martín Maldonado and pitcher Luis Garcia - in September 2022.

In the streets of Bayamón, Puerto Rico, people say that Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio’s father, Benito, always wanted his son to become a professional baseball player. Instead, Bad Bunny grew into the world’s most prominent streaming artist. Even though he has admitted that he wasn’t the best athlete, that hasn’t stopped him from maintaining a deep connection to sports.

Baseball became an opportunity, a way to lift communities and towns when one of the prospects made it to the big leagues. Laws, such as Act 60, plague the island, paving the way for wealthy Americans to settle in Puerto Rico and continue its gentrification.

Baseball was first organized in San Juan in 1898. It was brought to the island by Cuban immigrants. Although it took time to gain traction, it soon became popular. The game only reached new heights when the Almendares team defeated a visiting American military team. Later that year, the Americans annexed the island. The result: residents would hold American citizenship from now on, but lack voting representation in the US Congress. (Incidentally, the same fate befell American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.)

Roberto Clemente.

Baseball, meanwhile, was racially divided in the continental United States between the black Negro Leaguesand white Major League Baseball; such divisions did not exist in Puerto Rico. Approximately 22 Negro League players competed in the Puerto Rican Professional Baseball League between 1938 and 1968; among them were Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, and Leon Day, to name a few. (In the US, light-skinned or “white passing” players from the Caribbean, including from Puerto Rico, and South America were allowed in MLB before Jackie Robinson. As for black players from those regions, they were relegated to the Negro Leagues until Robinson’s breakthrough with the Brooklyn Dodgers.)

One of the first and most prominent players from Puerto Rico is Roberto Clemente. Bad Bunny namechecks him in a song (next to Argentine footballers Lionel Messi and Maradona, and Dominican baseball great Albert Pujols, and Puerto Rican baseball stars Francisco Lindor and Edwin Diaz.)

Clemente is considered to be a legend in his own right, referred to as “The Great One”, he was a right fielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates, becoming the first Latin American player to reach 3,000 hits. Clemente credited watching the Negro League players as inspiration to play baseball, calling them his heroes. Clemente died in a fatal airplane crash.

Bad Bunny is definitely proud of Puerto Rican baseball. Roughly 25 percent of MLB players come from Latin America and the Caribbean. During his most recent month-long “No Me Quiero Ir de Aqui” residency in Puerto Rico (he refused to perform on the US mainland), he shared the image “Baseball is almost religion, Puerto Rico defeated the United States in the World Baseball Classic in 2017.”

Rico, via Facebook.

His involvement in the business of sports reflects putting actions to his broader commitment to elevating Latino athletes. This has found expression in Rimas Sports, his sports agency, which features Baseball Hall of Famer Iván “Pudge” Rodríguez as an ambassador. Among its clients are MLB stars, including Ronald Acuña Jr. and Fernando Tatis Jr. Its rapid rise has drawn scrutiny as well; Rimas Sports was recently involved in an arbitration case with the Major League Baseball Players Association over alleged “serious rules violations,” which was resolved earlier this year. (He also co-owns a basketball team, Los Cangrejeros de Santurce, in Puerto Rico’s top league, the Baloncesto Superior Nacional or BSN.

Politically, Bad Bunny has been outspoken about Puerto Rico’s future. In 2024, he endorsed independent candidate Juan Dalmau, who ultimately lost the general election but is widely associated with the pro-independence movement. At a rally for Dalmau, Bad Bunny reflected on having previously voted for former governor Luis Fortuño of the pro-statehood New Progressive Party (PNP), a decision he said only worsened conditions on the island. During the same election period, he also financed billboards across San Juan criticizing the PNP, with messages such as “To vote for the PNP is to vote for corruption” and “Whoever votes for the PNP doesn’t love Puerto Rico,” all signed with his name. Taken together, these actions make clear his belief that Puerto Rico should pursue independence, and do so urgently.

Erika Rodriguez, via Instagram.

While this is considered peak decolonial thinking, he has developed it as he has matured as an artist. He is using his platform to help his listeners and fans become politically aware of the issues, not only in Puerto Rico but also in Latin America, where experiences are increasingly similar.

So as you watch Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show, remember: this moment has been years in the making—not just musically, but culturally. It marks a home run for the island, a rare step out from the shadow of the United States on its biggest stage. This is culture asserting itself, born from the uneasy reality that the U.S. created when it annexed Puerto Rico. Just as baseball arrived on the island through Cuba, today’s Latino diaspora is more connected than ever, and music, like sport, has the power to bind those histories together. The Super Bowl may be how America comes to recognize Latino presence—but, as baseball reminds us, we have always been here.