I want to start off by introducing myself and my composition. My name is Cory H (while I understand the importance of personalization mechanisms, for now I feel as though a pseudonym with regards to last names shall suffice) and I am currently a graduate student at Kent State University. I played baseball while in undergrad and have recently developed a critical view towards the game (I know…critical seems such a harsh word, but please do not dismiss my verbiage as me turning my back against the game itself). On the contrary to the matter, I do not believe that being critical to things leads to hypocrisy or unfaithfulness, but rather to a better and more full understanding of any given situation; after all, you should question the things you love the most and baseball has been the centerpiece to much of what I am today. I am defining critical in the sense that I have come to develop an ability to take an outside look into the game in which I centered my life around without distancing myself from its origins and importance. To me, baseball was just a game that took place on some dirt, in between two lines and a fence. But my unfortunate epistemological naivety of the game itself, most specifically the cultural significance and positioning of baseball in America, was unbeknownst to me until I began my graduate endeavors.
To avoid monotony I will dive right into the matter. The purpose of this blog is to open the eyes of its followers and respondents (as well as my own) to the exceedingly sociologically and culturally diverse world in which baseball is comprised. I will provide numerous articles of reference, which will include media and academic sources, as well as personal interviews, surveys, and observances, to help stir insight and both subjective and objective responses. My hope is to provide you the specified information above along with subjective views of my own and, in return, receive input from you regarding baseball and how it has been constructed into, more or less, what we view as an Americanized melting pot. Only then can we, together, ask ourselves the purposeful and problematic question: Is baseball really an American game?
Here is the first link to today’s blog: http://writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/50s/baseball.html
The article is written by Gerald Early, who is an essayist and American culture critic. For more on Early, please go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Early. In your replies (only if you are comfortable in specifying) would you please list your gender, age, ethnicity, relationship to baseball, and any other pertinent information you feel necessary to expose? Reason being, I would like to see how our diverse opinions and backgrounds relate across the various demographic categories. Please feel free to post any and everything with regards to this week’s post/link!
Baseball to me is becoming less and less significant in the fabric of American sport due to the rise in popularity of other sports, espcecially football and basketball. As an outsider to the game (not actively playing or invested in the game), I see very real problems facing the game. It is becoming relatively obsolete in viewership for casual fans. What I mean by this is that if a casual sport fan has to choose between an NBA game or MLB game, I think the scales are tipping towards the NBA. I still believe there are benefits of baseball and I think the live experience of taking in a ballgame on a weekend with family is priceless. In this regard it is comparable to the NHL. The NHL has relatively low television ratings, however talking to someone about seeing a game live is a different story. Where problems exist for baseball are in relation to the weekday games early in the season, or games in August and September of no significance that are truly losing interest. The season is long and many teams are eliminated by the all-star game. that turns individuals following sub par teams less likely to follow games and to shift focus to other aspects. I also think that the salaries of the game are ballooning to an alarming rate, which is separating the "haves" and "have-nots" even further apart. In smaller markets, it is becoming harder and harder to keep up. While places like Tampa Bay and Minnesota are able to experience succes, they are definitely the exception and not the rule.
ReplyDeleteAs a casual fan, I will tune into a game every now and then for a few innings for the hometown team, however I'm not sure I can think of the last time I watched a full game from start to finish. I think there are becoming more and more fans that share my thinking, and it is sad that it is happening to a game that has such a rich history and tradition. But things change, and American society is no different.
The bright side to all of this is the international aspect that has come into the picture recently. From Asia, to Central and South America, baseball is becoming globl. Players like Ichiro Suzuki are great ambassadors for the game. There is a potential for alot of expansion and as a result a great deal of success from the world-wide appeal of baseball. Maybe one dy we will have a true "World Series." So to answer the question, I think the game is becoming less of an american sport and more of a global sport. Not only due to the injection of international players, but also the culture and style of game they bring to the MLB. This can only be good for the long term health of the game and the view of the sport in the eyes of spectators.
I'm a male, 23 years old, white, casual sports fan
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ReplyDeleteTo answer the question whether baseball is really America's game; one must define what "ownership" means. Is it whoever creates the sport, popularizes it, or has the most active professional players? This rhetorical question may not have an answer; however, I feel that baseball has definitely become fragmented in its "ownership." My opinion is quite bias due to my past relationship with the sport. As a previous player for many years at a high level, I have been exposed to the abundance of non-American player participation. In my opinion, this has created a more internationally enriching sport; however, it has resulted in many Americans becoming uninterested or discouraged in their participation. Is it a coincidence that many of the starting lineups in the MLB are from non-American countries? Why don't we see this at the college level? Is this an advantage or disadvantage to those players coming from high school, junior college, or university? Once again, is there a definite answer to these questions, who knows?
ReplyDeletenmayer and Zino22:
ReplyDeleteThank you both very much for your comments. In response, I very much agree, nmayer, to the extent that baseball is almost becoming a backseat spectator sport to many of the other sports. My problem, and one of my analyses in regards to my topic, is that it is very much a power struggle sport between race/ethnicity. Even though baseball is becoming more and more of an international sport, the culture we see today is not one of an appreciated conglomerate. Rather, it is the white Americans controlling each and every facet of the game, whether it is during play or even outside of the game itself. Being so, I must now refer us to capitalism and its presence in baseball. The capitalistic structure is built upon the idea of hierarchy and power. With this comes an individualistic approach to the game of baseball. We have a white American owner sitting on the throne as the voice of authority and reason, while his pawns are down below performing the show he wishes them to portray. As Andrews (2007) mentions, “the material experiences of class have to be understood through their relationship with other fundamentally relational nature of the affluence–poverty couplet” (p. 42). The race/ethnicity outlook on the entire game of baseball can be eloquently described by this very quote. It shows us that the affluent, white Americans (upper-class) hold the power of voice and reason, while the non-whites, particularly the Latin Americans (lower-class), are the poor, in need of help, and subdued group/class. Zino22, this is where I see your point of ‘ownership’ coming into play. To me, the ownership is described perfectly by Dr. Andrews. He basically tells us that the material experiences, tangible items, are seen by those who own most of the resources (i.e. white Americans).
This being the case, and what I now fear, is that if we do not change our ways in regards to the culture and power hierarchy of baseball, indeed, Karl Marx will be right when he said that the “fundamental clash of class interests will ultimately result in a revolutionary conflict by workers to overthrow capitalist class when workers develop a collective consciousness of their true class interest of revolution and subsequently organize to engage in this revolution” (Nixon, 2007, p. 32). If we (white Americans) continue to alienate, exclude, and marginalize the non-white population, then revolt is inevitable, in one way or another. I am not saying that guns and armor will be laid down, however, I am saying that the game we know today can and will be very different than the game we expect it to be. And at that point, who can blame the “lower-class?”
Andrews, D.L. (2007). Response to Bairner’s “Back to basics: Class, social theory, and sport.” Sociology of Sport Journal, 24, 37-45.
Nixon, H.L. (2007). Social theories and research methods in sport sociology. Sport in a changing world. Boulder, CO: Paradigm.
Interesting analysis. Smart to look at capitalism since baseball is a multi-million dollar business. One of the strategies of capitalism is globalization and baseball is doing quite well in this regard. After getting kicked out of the Olympic Games, MLB created the World Baseball Classic. MLB definitely is worried about their US market, but they are making up for it, financially, with their globalizing strategies. The NFL is trying to do the same thing, which much less success. However, their hold on the US market is much stronger than MLB.
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