America Through Baseball Essay Research Paper The

America Through Baseball Essay, Research Paper

The American Pastime

“He who would know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball”

(Voigt 3). Through the years baseball has not only been a leisure activity and source of

entertainment, but a mirror of American culture and its society. Baseball has been looked

upon by many as a source of rejuvenation in times of hardship. Baseball is commonly

called “the pastime,” but most often the game feels and acts like an old friend (Cantaneo

4). In World War II many of the men dispatched to Pearl Harbor within weeks of the

Japanese attack in 1941 brought along a baseball and a mitt, and each day at dusk played

catch in front of their barracks. Nearly fifty years later a solider could remember how the

soft Hawaiian breeze reminded him of early spring at home and how throwing a baseball

was great solace, with the American fleet smoldering in the harbor (Cantaneo 5). Baseball

is not just a game, but an institution that has changed along with the American people.

Baseball has not only given Americans something to play and enjoy, but also something

they can depend on and associate with. This concept is illustrated in Phil Alden

Robinson’s movie Field of Dreams through James Earl Jones’ speech:

“Ray, people will come Ray. They’ll come to Iowa for reasons they can’t

even fathom. They’ll turn up your driveway and not even know why

they’re doing it. They’ll arrive at your door as innocent as children

longing for the past. We won’t mind if you look around you say, its only

$20 per person, they’ll pass over the money without even thinking about it.

It is money they have and peace they like. And they’ll walk out to the

bleachers, sit in shirtsleeves on a perfect afternoon. They’ll have reserved

seats along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children

and cheered their heroes. And they’ll watch the game and it will be as if

they dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick,

they’ll have to brush them away from their faces. People will come Ray.

The one constant through the years has been baseball. America has rolled

by like an army of steamrollers. It’s been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt

and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game,

it’s a part of our past Ray. It reminds us of all that was once good, and

could be again. Ohh, people will come Ray, people will most definitely

come!”

Baseball gives one a sense of youth and comfort that can be relived through baseball’s

ever-changing ways. It is one constant that’s been experienced generation after

generation. The game has not only become the most popular in our country, it mirrors our

society: Baseball is peculiarly American in its temperament and psychology ….It is our

national game not alone because of history and development but by nature and

characteristics as well. The game “fits” Americans; it pleases, satisfies, represents us

(Guttmann 96).

Baseball is a nineteenth-century field sport evolving out of children’s bat and ball

games. It first appeared as an exclusive team sport for urban gentlemen in Massachusetts.

The popularity of baseball grew immensely during the 1870’s, and with this growing

interest in the game, new baseball teams sprung up everywhere. People started paying to

see games, opening the door to commercialism. At the same time intense competition led

to the paying of good players so that the sport quickly evolved into a commercialized

spectacle. The decade of the 1870’s also saw the rise of baseball journalism. This was so

that people could keep track of their favorite stars. The average price being paid to

ballplayer at this was twenty dollars a week and has increased rapidly through the years;

today Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants is making $7 million a year. The paying o

good players led to labor disputes, as occurs in many other job fields. In 1890 players

banded together to form their own “Major League” to oppose their owners’ plans of

reducing salaries (Voigt 22). Since then players have tried to unionize, their ventures

reflecting the up-and-down pattern of union success in the nation’s economy. Although

baseball players don’t belong to a union today, they belong to the Major League Players

Association, an organization comparable to the white collar unions which use strikes and

boycotts as weapons in getting what they want (Voigt 25). Players and other workers

share many of the same problems, including retirement. In the case of the ballplayer it’s a

much different problem, since injuries can cause retirement at an unexpected and early

age. So the most important achievement of the Players Association would be the securing

of pension rights so that a player can be paid with as little as five years tenure (Voigt 22).

To lure fans, owners now offer more than just the game. Today, music, trick

cartoon

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