I've decided to make a fresh start -- not because the previous posts were terrible or anything. It's been a while since I wrote, and I thought it made more sense to start anew.
I'm now about a month away from graduating from Pomona College -- a combination of terror and senioritis has set in, and I'm trying to combat it with as much Astros baseball, television, good beer, and time outside as possible.
I wrote the following piece for the "Idea of America" course I'm in. It's not the best thing I've ever written, but my professor told me he liked the honesty and humor in it, despite the brevity. Since it's the start of the baseball season, and my Astros are doing mediocre at best, I thought I'd post it. I haven't been able to find the piece that it's responding to online, but the gist is comparing truly "American" sports like American football and baseball to John Ford westerns. Here's my take:
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Julis Morasvesik’s analysis of baseball as the functional equivalent to a western in the sports world resonated with me. The idea of baseball being a sport that at once creates a team mentality while having room for a “lone ranger” is probably accurate.
Baseball is a sport where “stealing a base” is okay. Fair and unfair is determined by a pole in the field. Justice works differently on a baseball field, and everything seems to be much more black and white. Like a John Wayne western, distinctions that might seem arbitrary or a bit harsh make sense when people are on the field.
The accessibility of baseball is one aspect of baseball’s appeal that I believe Morasvesik’s misses. The simplicity of the sport is closely tied to the justice system within it; nearly everyone can play baseball (if poorly), and nearly everyone can understand the rules. Baseball is intuitive – one hits a ball and is rewarded, and one misses the ball and is shamed. Baseball is something that everyone shares – from new immigrants into the country to my 92-year-old grandmother.
I believe the idea of a turnaround being possible that Morasvesik suggests as a reason for loving the sport is also spot-on. I’m an Astros fan, and we are always out of it until late into the season. We slump with the summer weather – drooping like the exhausted Texans that root for them. With the changes fall brings, we start doing well. It’s as if baseball mimics the weather. Teams' fortunes are as changeable as the weather up until the moment the last person is tagged out.
The sport is fundamentally about hope. We’re always holding out for the home team, even when things look dreary. Baseball fans are optimists – a Red Sox fan always believed that this year would be their year before they finally won the World Series. We’re optimists.
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Anyhow, it's good to be back and blogging! Cheers!
