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Baseball: A Reflection of Life
Baseball is a reflective game played at a leisurely pastoral pace. It has none of the urban hurry of basketball, the big city crunch of football, or the rush hour speed of hockey. Baseball allows the fans to think as the game unfolds, to reflect, to strategize. Should we hit and run, sacrifice or steal? Play the infield in? Admittedly, other sports have their strategies, but those games often develop too quickly for spectators to sort the options or weigh the alternatives beforehand. In baseball, average fans can do it. Many claim baseball is boring, but by their criteria so is chess, which is also deliberate and thoughtful. Some deride baseball as moments of great excitement surrounded by long periods of routine, but isn’t that like life? Why this national need for constant excitement and avoidance of reflective thought? As a nation, we need to be less knee-jerk and violent, more reflective and thoughtful. Baseball symbolizes this thoughtful steadiness – less “shock and awe” and more careful planning. Baseball too, reflects our country’s ideal of freedom. It is the only team sport I know whose entire game is self-determined. No clock or stopwatch dictates, divides or ends the game; the players do. With baseball’s displacement as the national sport, we’re also less free. Not only the Patriot Act’s restraints, but also the lobbying of wealthy interests to control legislation have restricted our freedoms. Baseball’s relative decline reflects that. More so than most sports, baseball is egalitarian. Baseball and soccer are the only team games played professionally by more or less normal- sized human beings. Mortals, a mere five feet eight and a hundred and sixty can play professional baseball. Not many built like that in the NFL or the NBA. Moreover, baseball managers wear the same uniform as the players. Does this democratic nature of baseball reflect something we’ve lost? I think so. You have to be a millionaire or backed by megabucks to run for the US senate or presidency. The little guy has little chance. The last “little guy” to be president was Harry Truman over sixty years ago. Individual plays in baseball are more easily observed; the plays are discrete. The game is less secretive. You see what’s going on. Everyone can focus on pitcher and batter. Knowledgeable and attentive fans also notice the third baseman inching in for a bunt, or the pitcher holding the runner on first. On the other hand, who in the stands can really see a tackle muscle the opposing lineman out of the play? It takes a zoom lens and television replay to capture that. In baseball, more than other sports, the individual effort is noticed, not lost in the hurried action. That individualism and openness is part of its American soul. Our government should function as openly. If it did, we’d have more accountability.
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Gerald Early, a Professor
at Washington
University in St. Louis,
wrote, “There are only three
things America will be known
for 2,000 years from now …
the Constitution, jazz music,
and baseball.” Gradually over
the last half century, football
has displaced baseball as the
national sport. Since sports
reflect society in deep, mythical
ways, that has some profound
political implications.
Daniel O’Rourke is retired from the
administration at State University of New
York at Fredonia. His
column appears in the
Observer, Dunkirk,
NY, on the second and
fourth Thursday each
month. A grandfather,
Dan is a married
Catholic priest. His
book, The Spirit at Your Back is a collection
of previous columns. Visit his website