Baseball - Meanings of Americas Favorite Pastime - Essay Example

Section/# Baseball: An Analysis of the Divergent Views Concerning Origins and Meanings of America’s Favorite Pastime For years people have been seeking to understand the roots of baseball. As part of our readings, we were introduced to three articles; each introducing a different and slightly varied interpretation of the game and seeking to relate that interpretation to the wild success that baseball has enjoyed in the hearts and minds of the American public. These articles are as follows: Why Baseball Was Our National Game” by Allen Guttmann, “Football Red and Baseball Green” by Murray Ross, and “Baseball: The Remembrance of Things Past” by Michael Mandelbaum. As stated, each of the articles has its own perspectives on the origins and influences that have worked together to become so extraordinarily popular within our society; however, the reasons for this widespread popularity and the nearly mystical charm that the game engenders are topics of contention among the authors. As such, the purpose of this brief analysis will be to analyze the salient arguments made by the respective authors and work to draw comparisons and contrast between these while at the same time offering this author’s own unique perspective as to which of the above writers has, according to the judgment of this author, most correctly defined the game of baseball. In order to accomplish this task, this analysis will pay special attention to the following terms: individualism, pastoral, and traditional society. For purposes of this analysis and the analysis of the aforementioned authors, individualism will be used with respect to the individualistic nature in which the game of baseball is played (as compared to other team sports). Likewise, the respective authors note that this individualism is likely a direct result of the individualism that is expressed through the frontier experience that American settlers experienced. In much the same way, pastoral will be defined with relation to the actual setting in which the game is played; on a green grassy field – intermixed with dirt and a varying degree of way marks. Finally, traditional society will be defined and understood with relation to how the game proceeds outside of time and due to the rhythmic motions of nature and individual highlights of the participants. It is extremely important to note that through analyzing these distinct components, this author has noted a great deal of convergence and coalescence between each of these distinct terms. For this reason, as well as the fact that each of the authors of the respective pieces interprets these differently, the reader will likely note a great deal of parallelism between these three distinct terms. Allen Guttmann briefly emphasizes the individualist nature of baseball prior to moving on to his dominant theme regarding the pastoral nature of the game. Says Guttman, “The frontier was a source of mobility, restlessness, and change as well as equality and individualism. It was, moreover, the spirit of the frontier that led to an emphasis on organization” (Guttman 29). Although Guttman notes the unique individuality that the game displays, his particular focus lies within the pastoral elements that the game engenders. Says Guttman of the pastoral roots that define baseball as compared to a litany of other American sports, “The ceaseless effort to discover rural traits in an essentially urban sport indicates the importance of the pastoral impulse in baseball” (Guttman 31) Moreover, Guttman goes on to further differentiate baseball from other sports with relation to the pastoral nature of the game, stating: “(Baseball) is a pastoral sport, and … the game can be best understood as this kind of art. For baseball creates an atmosphere in which everything exists in harmony” (Guttman 31). Guttman continues to provide a host of examples for how the pastoral elements of baseball have not only influenced the way the game is played but the unique and peculiar elements of the game that help to endear the public to it with such vigor. In this way, Guttman holds up the pastoral elements of baseball as being the defining principles which have influenced the individualism and traditional society that are also displayed as central elements of the game. Moreover, Guttman works to hedge his argument by providing the following analysis near the end of his article “Has my analysis of baseball been self-contradictory? Have I argued that baseball’s special attraction among team games, all of which combine individualism and cooperative effort, lies in its primitive-pastoral elements and, simultaneously, in its extraordinary modernity, in its closeness to the seasonal rhythms of nature and, at the same time, in the rarified realm of numbers (Guttman 33)? In this way, Guttman is able to provide a caveat to the information he has presented to help to categorize his statements and classifications by way of using the specific example of pastoral description to speak to the tangential realities of what defines the game. The second author that this brief analysis will scrutinize is that of Murray Ross’s piece “Football Red and Baseball Green”. In keeping with the theme of the first article that was analyzed, Ross’s piece further emphasizes the pastoral nature of the game as an integral component with respect to how the game is played and appreciated by its spectators. Ross states, Baseball is a pastoral sport, and I think the game can be best understood as this kind of art. For baseball does what all good pastoral does - it creates an atmosphere in which everything exists in harmony” (Ross 34). However, it is not enough to say that because baseball exhibits pastoral elements these are the reasons why we are so fond of it. With respect to this, Ross expertly defines the lingering appeal that a pastoral game holds for a generation that cannot fully identify with the charm that pastoral elements of the game hold, “Together with its clean serenity, its open space, and its ritualized action is enough to place it in a world of yesterday. Baseball evokes for us a past which may never have been ours, but which we believe was, and certainly that is enough” (Ross 34). Ross continues to describing the appeal that baseball maintains with relation to its spectators by noting, “As a pastoral game, baseball attempts to close the gap between the players and the crowd” (Ross 36). In this way, the simplicity that the pastoral setting provides to the crowds serves as a unique and ironic dichotomy. Even though these fans are packed hundreds even thousands to a single arena, the spectacle that greats them is one that provides a false sense of connection with a simpler, rural, and pastoral setting. What is specifically interesting about Ross’s analysis as compared to those of the other authors herein analyzed is that he provides a very realistic view for why baseball is losing some of its appeal to the spectator and ceasing to be “America’s pastime”. Says Ross, “More and more, both baseball and football are being played indoors on rugs in multipurpose spaces. The fans at these games are constantly being diverted by huge whiz-bang scoreboards that dominate and describe the action, while the fans at home are constantly being reminded by at least three lively sportscasters of the other games, the other sports and the other shows that are coming up later on the same stations. Both pro football and pro baseball now play vastly extended seasons, so that the World Series now takes place on chilly October nights and football is well under way before summer ends” (Ross 36). Likewise, the game of baseball mirrors those natural actions that occur in pastoral settings. Ross describes this simplicity in the following way, “In baseball what happens is what meets the eye, but in football each play means eleven men acting against eleven other men: it’s too much for a single set of eyes to follow. We are now provided with several television commentators to explain the action to us, with the help of the ubiquitous slow-motion instant replay” (Ross 38) The final work with which this analysis will evaluate is that of Michael Mandelbaum’s “The Remembrance of Things Past”. What is particularly interesting about Mandelbaum’s piece is that his view incorporates aspects of both the pastoral nature of the game as well as the traditional sociological inclusions that are evident in nearly every aspect of the game’s progression. In this way, the author describes the fact that he believes that baseball is fundamentally a pastoral sport in which has incorporated elements of how man(humanity) interacts with a primitive environment. In this way, elements of traditional society as it relates to the most traditional society conceivable are brought to light. The author states, “Baseball belongs to the kind of world in which people did not say, “I haven’t got all day.” Baseball games do have all day to be played. But that does not mean that they can go on forever. Baseball, like traditional life, proceeds according to the rhythm of nature, specifically the rotation of the Earth. During its first half century, games were not played at night, which meant that baseball games, like the traditional work day, ended when the sun set” (Mandelbaum 51). Likewise, in this quote, the reader can see clear that the author notes and respects the clear pastoral elements of the game; however, the author also takes special care to note how these pastoral elements have influenced traditional society in a bygone era as well as working to forge a link of identification with the game today. In further drawing on the ways that baseball belies a more primitive relationship between the pastoral setting (man’s environment) and man, the author states, “One thing that the modern world and the world of tradition have in common is the use of tools. In the modern world the traditional axe, plough, and spear have given way to the power saw, the tractor, the machine gun and intercontinental ballistic missile. In baseball, more than in football and basketball, players rely on tools and, true to the spirit of the sport, baseball’s tools—the bats that batters use and the gloves that fielders wear to help them catch the ball—are more traditional than modern” (Mandelbaum 52). In this way Mandelbaum works to incorporate the elements of the pastoral setting and traditional society into a conveniently understood realm in which the primitive actor (baseball player) interacts with his pastoral environment in an individual level to achieve the action and results of the game. In this way, Mandelbaum’s piece is the most interesting of the three that have thus far been analyzed due in large part to the fact that Mandelbaum is able to incorporate all three of the distinct elements of the game without minimizing any of them to form a broader understanding and appreciation for how the game is played. What is interesting to note from these three pieces is that regardless of the mechanism of appreciation, the sport has multiple facets that continue to awe and inspire Americans who even have no memory of a frontier/pastoral environment. In this way, the cultural attraction of the game is somewhat unquantifiable. However, regardless of this anachronism, the game is still enjoyed – even preferred – by millions in the United States. Likewise, due to this love and fascination, it is not surprising that the authors that have been discussed have divergent viewpoints as to what helps to contribute to the enigmatic success that the game has both enjoyed and continues to enjoy. Works Cited Guttmann, Allen. From ritual to record : the nature of modern sports. New York: Columbia University Press, 2004. Mandelbaum, Michael. The meaning of sports why Americans watch baseball, football, and basketball, and what they see when they do. New York: Public Affairs, 2004. Ross, Murray. "Football Red and Baseball Green." Chicago Review 22.3 (1971): 30-40. Print. Read More