27/10: Comparing American Games
Category: American Culture
Posted by: an okie gardener
As I have pointed out before, baseball reflects an agrarian America, the rhythm of the seasons and farming, the pace of work with human muscle and horses, and the dominant role of weather. Baseball also reflects pre-industrial labor in a village setting: cooperative specialization--pitcher, catcher, infielders, outfielders / cooper, blacksmith, carpenter, preacher--universal skills and tasks--caring for and using animals, working the soil/batting, catching, throwing. The social actions of village life are also reflected in the teamwork of baseball: working together cooperatively, but separately in responsibilities and often in distance.
No other American sport has the consistent distance between players on the same team that baseball has, but each must cooperate with the others to succeed. When the ball is pitched, no one can throw it but the pitcher or catch it but the catcher, if the ball is hit to right field there is only one person who can catch it; at the plate, all the responsibility is shouldered by the hitter, one player at a time, but his approach to that at bat is determined by whether there are men on base and where. Teamwork and individual responsibility. Farmers and craftsmen and merchants mutually dependent, farmers cooperating in labor for threshing and barn-raising, but each responsible for the success of his own family on his farm or in his shop.
I'll develop reflections on the other sports at a later date, but for now let me point out that football and basketball are industrial-age sports both in time of origin and in the nature of the games. Both are structured by mechanical clocks, have a fast pace reflecting industrial labor, and team members play in relatively close proximity most of the time. Labor is more specialized, especially in football, but even in basketball centers do not bring the ball up the court nor do guards usually post up. Weather does not determine if a game will be played or not. Both sports run counter to seasonal progression in nature, beginning their seasons when the cycle of sowing, growth, and harvest is ending; football ends its season in late winter/very early spring, basketball in spring. And while football does require a field and grass, basketball separates itself from nature completely.
Perhaps I love baseball because in my heart of hearts I'm a nineteenth-century kind of guy.
No other American sport has the consistent distance between players on the same team that baseball has, but each must cooperate with the others to succeed. When the ball is pitched, no one can throw it but the pitcher or catch it but the catcher, if the ball is hit to right field there is only one person who can catch it; at the plate, all the responsibility is shouldered by the hitter, one player at a time, but his approach to that at bat is determined by whether there are men on base and where. Teamwork and individual responsibility. Farmers and craftsmen and merchants mutually dependent, farmers cooperating in labor for threshing and barn-raising, but each responsible for the success of his own family on his farm or in his shop.
I'll develop reflections on the other sports at a later date, but for now let me point out that football and basketball are industrial-age sports both in time of origin and in the nature of the games. Both are structured by mechanical clocks, have a fast pace reflecting industrial labor, and team members play in relatively close proximity most of the time. Labor is more specialized, especially in football, but even in basketball centers do not bring the ball up the court nor do guards usually post up. Weather does not determine if a game will be played or not. Both sports run counter to seasonal progression in nature, beginning their seasons when the cycle of sowing, growth, and harvest is ending; football ends its season in late winter/very early spring, basketball in spring. And while football does require a field and grass, basketball separates itself from nature completely.
Perhaps I love baseball because in my heart of hearts I'm a nineteenth-century kind of guy.
