America Through Baseball Essay Research Paper America

America Through Baseball Essay, Research Paper

America Through Baseball”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 ofentertainment, but a mirror of American culture and its society. Baseball has been lookedupon by many as a source of rejuvenation in times of hardship. Baseball is commonlycalled “the pastime,” but most often the game feels and acts like an old friend (Cantaneo4). In World War II many of the men dispatched to Pearl Harbor within weeks of theJapanese attack in 1941 brought along a baseball and a mitt, and each day at dusk playedcatch in front of their barracks. Nearly fifty years later a solider could remember how thesoft Hawaiian breeze reminded him of early spring at home and how throwing a baseballwas great solace, with the American fleet smoldering in the harbor (Cantaneo 5). Baseballis 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 somethingthey can depend on and associate with. This concept is illustrated in Phil AldenRobinson’s movie Field of Dreams through James Earl Jones’ speech: “Ray, people will come Ray. They’ll come to Iowa for reasons they can’teven fathom. They’ll turn up your driveway and not even know whythey’re doing it. They’ll arrive at your door as innocent as childrenlonging 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 thebleachers, sit in shirtsleeves on a perfect afternoon. They’ll have reservedseats along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were childrenand cheered their heroes. And they’ll watch the game and it will be as ifthey 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 rolledby 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 definitelycome!”Baseball gives one a sense of youth and comfort that can be relived through baseball’sever-changing ways. It is one constant that’s been experienced generation aftergeneration. The game has not only become the most popular in our country, it mirrors oursociety: Baseball is peculiarly American in its temperament and psychology ….It is ournational game not alone because of history and development but by nature andcharacteristics 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 ballgames. 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 growinginterest in the game, new baseball teams sprung up everywhere. People started paying tosee games, opening the door to commercialism. At the same time intense competition ledto the paying of good players so that the sport quickly evolved into a commercializedspectacle. The decade of the 1870’s also saw the rise of baseball journalism. This was sothat people could keep track of their favorite stars. The average price being paid toballplayer 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 ogood players led to labor disputes, as occurs in many other job fields. In 1890 playersbanded together to form their own “Major League” to oppose their owners’ plans ofreducing salaries (Voigt 22). Since then players have tried to unionize, their venturesreflecting the up-and-down pattern of union success in the nation’s economy. Althoughbaseball players don’t belong to a union today, they belong to the Major League PlayersAssociation, an organization comparable to the white collar unions which use strikes andboycotts as weapons in getting what they want (Voigt 25). Players and other workersshare many of the same problems, including retirement. In the case of the ballplayer it’s amuch different problem, since injuries can cause retirement at an unexpected and earlyage. So the most important achievement of the Players Association would be the securingof 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, trickcartoon scoreboards, fireworks, giveaways (including bat days, ball days, and battingglove days) are all used. Such great promotions, and the pursuit of fun, has made baseballalmost an American religion. This then has lead to the struggle between baseball and thechurch. There has been a declining influence of churches on public behavior, and theability to maintain religious-based rules in our society. This is reflected in the losing battle

of religious moralizers against baseball. Baseball gave way to the church until 1902 whenSunday games were played only in Chicago, St. Louis, and Cincinnati (Voigt 17).Elsewhere local and state laws banned Sunday