America's Pastime

Maybe this post is a little bit of a stretch but, Ben, I’m aiming to have this work under the umbrella of “civic life.”

But, I think it does… or at least, I think it should.

I’m talking about baseball. It’s opening day! Why not?

I love baseball. In reality, there are few things that I have a greater passion for, and it easily makes my top ten (and I’m including family on that same list). My senior year research paper was on baseball. Not just the basics, not just the history, not even just well-written passionate ranting – I wrote about why baseball is so much more than a sport to the American people.

Maybe you have your doubts. But I’d love to take anyone up on the argument. There’s a reason it’s called “America’s Pastime,” and believe me, it’s far more than just another a cliché. It’s been a constant in this country at times when nothing else has. In fact, during World War II, FDR told the commissioner of the MLB to keep the league running – because the country needed it. When I found that out, it blew my mind, but I realized the truth in it. After September 11^th, George Bush threw out the first pitch of Game 3 of the Diamondbacks Yankees World Series. It was in New York, not long after the attacks, and it was a perfect strike.

I remember watching. I was eight, and I could feel the meaning behind it.

Of course, baseball is far more than something to keep us together during times of crisis. It is full of life lessons, and can be anything that you need it to be. Say you’re a big math person, you learn with numbers and formulas. Baseball can be there for you – it is a game of statistics, strategies, and odds. But say you’re the person of abstract, numbers mean nothing to you – you need the creativity. Well, baseball can be there for you too. It’s fluid, quirky, full of superstition, passion, and youth.

It’s America’s sport. It’s there for the die hard fan. And it reaches out to the most unlikely of places. That’s the beauty in it.

As we prepare for this first weekend of the 2012 season, I hope you find time somewhere along the next six months to sit back, relax, and soak it in. Because I think we could all use a little more baseball in us.