Is baseball still America's pastime?

¶ … Baseball Still America's Pastime?

There was a time when baseball was akin to religion. Baseball was played and discussed in small towns and large cities from coast to coast. But today many feel baseball is a dying sport. There are those who contend baseball is slowly and sadly fading away, overrun by a fast-paced, multi-cultural, technology driven society. In today's America baseball must contend with summer basketball, soccer, football in the spring and fall, and extreme sports. Furthermore, sedentary lifestyles brought about by technology have more children sitting indoors at computers and video games and fewer filling out enrollment forms for little league. And there are those who argue the game has grown boring from a lack of parity with the same teams continually dominating the sport. But is this truly the case? Is baseball dying?

Discussion

Background

There is some dispute as to when the game of baseball actually began to be played since reference can be found dating back several centuries to European games that are conceivably the early ancestors of the modern game. In the United States the first know reference appeared in1791 in Pittsfield Massachusetts, where legislation was enacted prohibiting the game near the town meeting house. There is little dispute the game as we know it today came about in 1845 when a member of the New York Knickerbockers' Club, Alexander Cartwright laid out the first set modern rules. The first official game took place in 1846 and grew in popularity until by the end of the Civil War journalist's were referring to the game as "America's Pastime" ("History of Baseball").

Ironically the Civil War did much to advance America's Pastime. During this period several prototypes of the game were melded into what we more or less recognize as today's game. This synthesis took place in the camps where officers from both sides permitted and even encouraged baseball playing and also in the prisons of the North and the South, notably those in Salisbury, North Carolina, and Johnson's Island, near Sandusky, Ohio, where a few lucky inmates were able to enjoy for a moment a respite from their harsh reality. After the war these men took the game with them back to their respective hometowns (Kirsch).

In its early years baseball was strictly an amateur sport, but after club owners began to sell admission to the events several clubs began to turn professional. From 1871 through 1875 the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players existed and is considered by many to be the first major league. In 1876 the National League began. This marked the beginning of what contemporary fans recognize as modern baseball. The National League was an organization of clubs, not players as before, and implemented tighter rules on game schedules, gambling and player contracts. Professional baseball expanded in the late 1800s, with clubs from New York to Florida to California, as well as the first Negro Leagues. Over the last decades of the nineteenth century several leagues similar to the National League arose and ultimately failed until the somewhat successful Western League declared its intent to operate as a major league and changed its name to the American League in 1901("History of Baseball").

After 1902, both leagues signed an agreement that established their dominance as major leagues over the numerous other independent leagues. In addition, the two leagues agreed to cease the practice of cross-league raids on player contracts, which had been a serious problem. They also established the World Series, which was first held in 1903, with the Boston Americans defeating the Pittsburgh Pirates. Baseball witnessed several changes in the style of play, as well as considerable expansion in the following century, but the game has remained substantially the same.

Conclusion

Frank DeFord contends that baseball is to slow for its own good and does lack the "appealing lyric brutality of football." However, its more cerebral nature fascinates a significant portion of the population. Sports like football, soccer, basketball and hockey are quick while baseball takes more effort to appreciate. DeFord claims baseball is just more comfortable than other sports.

Our culture is used to instant everything. People complain that baseball has long stretches of play that are boring; however, baseball is not boring, if one actually takes the time to learn the game. It is a game of inches, of positioning, of strategy moment to moment. And it is the only major untimed game where the play always begins with the ball in the hands of the defensive player, not the offense. Ken Witherington asserts baseball was and is about redemption. It is the game that is most like life. It is a game of children played by adults. In what other sport can you get a hit only one try out of three, failing two thirds of the time, and end up in a Hall of Fame? In what other sport can one fail magnificently, completely, repeatedly, in double digits, and still go on to win a world championship? This is the beauty and the appeal of baseball.