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The decline of interest in baseball is a harbinger of waning American power
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/28/declining-interest-baseball-waning-american-powerLong considered the country’s “national pastime”, baseball reflects the very best qualities of the American spirit, the higher values upon which our society was (theoretically, at least) founded: freedom, independence, tolerance. Football is a violent, territorial sport that rewards brute strength over everything else and symbolises, at its base level, imperialism, bloodlust, and corporate capitalism’s tendency to flatten any and all eccentricity into bland, cog-in-the-machine homogeny.....
This is a deep – and worsening – flaw in our collective character, as telling a sign of American decline as our terrible math skills, our tragic and preventable high infant mortality rate or the depreciation of our GDP vis-a-vis China....
Baseball is the most individualist of our major team sports: 9 solitary players, spread across a two-and-a-half-acre field, each charged with doing his own job by himself. Especially in its central competition – pitcher vs. hitter, facing off at just over 60 feet [18m], it mirrors the drama and heroism of a gunslinger’s duel at high noon. The outcome of every pitch of every game – a hundred one-on-one micro-battles of wit, timing and accuracy – is determined as much by savvy and feint of hand as it is by speed and strength. Think of the submarine relief pitcher, scraping his knuckles on the mound as he throws a deceptive sinker. Or the knuckleballer, floating butterfly pitches at a tantalising 6omph. Or the backhanded, inside-out swing of a placement hitter, slicing a soft line drive just out of an infielder’s reach. Baseball is a complicated, quirky endeavour that rewards kooks who do things their own way....
This facelessness of football falls in line with its overall ethos. Far more team-oriented in its play, the sport is based on the subjugation of the self to a collective effort. A group of men pushing in a single direction, directing all their will and power towards a shared goal: moving a ball over a line. The all-for-one-and-one-for-all aspect of the game buffers the militaristic metaphors so often employed to describe it. The quarterback is a “field general”, the linemen are “soldiers in the trenches”. How many wars has America fought over the past 50 years? How many of them still rage on in one form or another? How many quagmires do we find ourselves stuck in? Pax Americana? “Peace through superior fire power?” How much harm have these lies done in the world? How much harm have they done to us? Might makes right in this ugly worldview, as it does in football.
This is a deep – and worsening – flaw in our collective character, as telling a sign of American decline as our terrible math skills, our tragic and preventable high infant mortality rate or the depreciation of our GDP vis-a-vis China....
Baseball is the most individualist of our major team sports: 9 solitary players, spread across a two-and-a-half-acre field, each charged with doing his own job by himself. Especially in its central competition – pitcher vs. hitter, facing off at just over 60 feet [18m], it mirrors the drama and heroism of a gunslinger’s duel at high noon. The outcome of every pitch of every game – a hundred one-on-one micro-battles of wit, timing and accuracy – is determined as much by savvy and feint of hand as it is by speed and strength. Think of the submarine relief pitcher, scraping his knuckles on the mound as he throws a deceptive sinker. Or the knuckleballer, floating butterfly pitches at a tantalising 6omph. Or the backhanded, inside-out swing of a placement hitter, slicing a soft line drive just out of an infielder’s reach. Baseball is a complicated, quirky endeavour that rewards kooks who do things their own way....
This facelessness of football falls in line with its overall ethos. Far more team-oriented in its play, the sport is based on the subjugation of the self to a collective effort. A group of men pushing in a single direction, directing all their will and power towards a shared goal: moving a ball over a line. The all-for-one-and-one-for-all aspect of the game buffers the militaristic metaphors so often employed to describe it. The quarterback is a “field general”, the linemen are “soldiers in the trenches”. How many wars has America fought over the past 50 years? How many of them still rage on in one form or another? How many quagmires do we find ourselves stuck in? Pax Americana? “Peace through superior fire power?” How much harm have these lies done in the world? How much harm have they done to us? Might makes right in this ugly worldview, as it does in football.
Besides, as Carlin reminded us, "football is played in a STADIUM. Baseball is played in a park."
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