The Underground Insight 10.29.07: Why Baseball Matters
Posted by JD Koziarski on 10.29.2007
The National Football League may have overtaken the #1 spot in terms of television ratings and profit margins, but the game of baseball maintains its place in the hearts and minds of America – not just American sports fans. As the World Series nears its conclusion, I take a look at America’s Pastime and explain just why baseball is so ingrained in our lives.
Another Scheduling Change
I'll keep this one short: In order for me to justify continuing to write a column that qualifies as a resume builder, I had to cut back on the workload significantly. So, from now on – or until I manage to find regular, paid writing gigs – I will be writing one column a month. It will always post the final Monday of the month, so there is some uniformity to it. Thanks to all who have been reading along with me since April. I appreciate it. On to the column.
Americana
A couple weeks ago we had to bring to class what the professor described as "an artifact of pop culture," without giving any additional instruction. I scanned my bedroom for something that would not just qualify, but would be unique. Everybody was going to bring a magazine or CD (and, sure enough, the majority of items were just that), so I wanted mine to be something interesting. It is rare when adults get to play show and tell, so I had to make the most of the opportunity. When I saw the baseball sitting atop my entertainment center, I grabbed it.
Aside from maybe the Bill of Rights, a baseball is the best symbol for American culture and history. As Terrance Mann (James Earl Jones) said in Field of Dreams, "The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball . . . baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again." Baseball matters to Americans – from the beginning of the sport until now – because it represents everything we are as a nation. Our hopes and dreams, values and politics, and even the War on Drugs are represented by the sport of baseball.
Baseball has an American flavor: The season is a grind, a marathon as the old cliché goes. But winning, unless you're a Cubs fan, is always possible. Success is possible, though never promised. That's what America proclaims to be – a land of opportunity. And you know, one can argue that some people don't ever get that opportunity as promised. I guess somebody has to be the Royals.
Baseball was segregated when the country was, too. Unlike the rest of the nation, baseball got it sooner. Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier a decade and a half before the Civil Rights Act of 1963, and to this day the name Jackie is on equal standing with Martin and Malcolm. It can be argued that his task of going to work each day was just as important as any march on Washington.
Like the Field of Dreams, film and literature have used baseball as a metaphor for life. The Natural shows a man's fight with greed and Bull Durham portrays a man's struggle with aging. Recently, I>Game of Shadows has demonstrated American's losing battle in the War on Drugs and Moneyball reflects economic principles generally used by the very best on Wall Street. All of these are baseball, but they're also ideals and examples of American life. Even Randle Patrick McMurphy battled with establishment to see the World Series, if not for the too-strict rules of Nurse Ratched.
Some will argue that baseball is too slow paced, boring even. The World Series hardly rates compared to the Super Bowl. Many fans have been disenchanted with the recent labor strife and the failure to control rampant performance-enhancing drug use. But that's the whole idea. People are upset; people care. Take away all other sports in this country and only one day of the year is truly affected; the undeniable super-event that is the Super Bowl would leave a crater-sized hole in Americana. But take away baseball? Things would be different. That connection we all share would disappear. The unity of following the same group of guys for six months (hopefully seven) will be gone. The country wouldn't fall apart without baseball, but when we got a taste of it at the end of 1994 a lot of people thought things would never be right again. But they were – once baseball came back.
The rules of the game have not changed over the years: nine men against nine men, a bat and a ball. But baseball has changed just as America has changed. Sleeker ballparks, lighted stadiums, ballooning salaries, television contracts, and the rest of baseball's periphery are different from generations past. But the aura remains. The feeling some something incredibly special each time a game is played remains. Baseball, for all it is and all it has been, remains. Opening Day and the World Series – they have a unique feel. It feels like the American Dream.
