Baseball Reading Set - Essay Example

There is overlap in the themes. They discuss American exceptionalism, individualism, the pastoral nature of baseball, and the way it contains the elements of traditional society. Each author emphasizes different areas of these themes, to some extent, but these themes are held out as being primary. At the end of their arguments, each author reaches a conclusion different from the conclusions reached by the other authors. The intention of this paper is to reach a conclusion informed by the contributions of all three articles, as well as this author’s personal understanding of baseball and American identity, within the framework offered.

Guttmann argues against American exceptionalism, raising various claims and treatments of this theme, historically, and refuting their assumptions and conclusions. He does not, however, refute the arguments that baseball has been of great importance to America, and that baseball and American identity have things in common. After a careful examination of the arguments, Guttmann concludes that all nations go through similar stages of development, America being no different in that regard, but that baseball has served American needs, as a transition sport (Guttmann 8).

The transition, to which he refers, is the process of moving from a traditionalist culture to a modern, quantified, electronic digital one. Guttmann observes that most other countries do not eagerly latch on to baseball, as a primary sport. One reason is that many are still traditionalist, and therefore celebrate the seasons and life cycle in a more traditionalist way. Some of them have other ways to honor the ancient pastoral traditions, and the archetypes within their psyches (Guttmann 2).

I support this conclusion because I see evidence for it. I have heard that in Russia and in Northern Europe, for example, it is a sport to take a sauna and then run into the snow. This gives first-hand experience of the