Why Baseball?

Former student Kim Brown asked me a very intelligent question regarding baseball:  Why am I and others so “fascinated” by it?  Allow me to begin this answer with a story.

I have had the privilege of interviewing Mo Weber, the New Market Rebels’ hitting instructor, on several occasions, a man whom I now have the even greater privilege of calling my friend.  Mo will be 86 in June of this year and has been active in college or semi-pro baseball since 1946.  I put this very question to Mo, a thoughtful and articulate man with interests ranging from art to the stock market.  This intelligent man who has spent 63 years in the game gave me an immediate and unhesitating answer, “I don’t know,” he said, “I’ve often asked myself that same question.”  Later in our conversation he talked about the thrill of watching a well-turned double play, stating that it’s better than attending the ballet or reading “great literature,” but he never could give me a definitive answer.

I, too, have given this question much thought over the course of my life (which isn’t even as long as Mo’s coaching career!), and I can’t answer the question to my own complete satisfaction, but I’ve come up with a couple of observations.  Baseball does not attract a single mindset, as both scientists and poets are fascinated by the game.  It is certainly a game of numbers, but perhaps it is the infinite possibilities in which those numbers play out that gives the game a certain poetic quality.  While it is a very mathematical game, it is anybody’s guess where the ball is going on a given play.  Football is such a marvelous game for television because the ball moves across the screen in a very ordered fashion.  This is why flea-flicker plays and double reverses are loved by football fans, because it breaks the constant pattern of left to right or right to left across your TV screen.

There is also something very personable about baseball.  We feel as if we know the players and recognize them by their very mannerisms.  True baseball fans instantly recognize their heroes; if I saw, even from a distance, Brooks Robinson set himself at third base in civilian clothes, I would know who it was.

There is also something very human about failing 7 times out of 10 and still being regarded as successful.  We humans fail at an awful lot in the course of the day, and I wonder if 3/10 is some kind of archetypal number for us Homo sapiens.  Indeed, I suspect that there is something primal about baseball that appeals to our deepest instincts concerning the success of the individual within the context of a bonded community, that is, team.  There’s a master’s thesis in psychology there somewhere.

For me personally, baseball represents among other things a return to childhood.  It’s the sport I grew up playing, and I dreamed of buying a pack of baseball cards, opening it, and seeing me on top of the stack.  In fact, I have a membership in our local Extra Innings, which is an indoor batting facility.  Once a week, I go there for ½ hour of batting practice.  I’m not as strong or as fast or as quick or as coordinated as I was when I was younger, but the joy is just as intense as it was when I was young.  I have no problems or responsibilities in the cage; it’s just me and the ball and the sights and sounds that have been the backdrop for some of my happiest moments over these (almost) 52 years.

I typed “why is baseball so popular” into the Google search engine and received 26,400,000 results.  I suspect that Mo and I could read all of them and still feel as if no one had quite explained exactly what is so fascinating about baseball.

My mother was and still is a baseball fan.  I am and so is Becky, our older daughter; but Sarah, our younger daughter, is not.  Kim, I guess it’s like this:  Why do any of us fall in love with another person?  I can give many explanations and cite reasons, but ultimately . . . there’s just a certain something.

***

The second part to why baseball, is why baseball in New Market, Virginia.  That is the subject for the next post!

Comments

[Dan Kauffman]

"There is also something very human about failing 3 times out of 10"

You meant "failing 7 times out of 10" right?

Baseabll's not my favorite sport, but I definitely agree with your points about why a lot of people love the game.

[Austin]

Good catch, Dan! I have corrected it in the text. (Ahh, the pupil teaches the teacher!)

[JohnLL]

It's the same for me- I really don't know why I love baseball as much as I do. I was ridiculed for it in Kenya (mostly by my students-good-naturedly), but I couldn't explain it. Mo mentioned a double play- for me, a clean pitcher's motion is incredible- beautiful to watch. Remember seeing Steve Carlton back in his heyday? Wow. Keep up the good work, Austin! JLL

[Austin]

Cesar Pavese, an Italian poet said, "We do not remember days, we remember moments." Is there any game (or activity, for that matter) that contains more moments than baseball? (By the way, I know nothing about Italian poetry. I saw Pavese's quote, which I liked a great deal in a memo book and I had to look him up!)

[Kim]

Yes, I made the blog!! Interesting, but I'm not so sure I'm convinced. I will have to say that going to a baseball game simply for the atmosphere and food is fun though. :)

[Austin]

Not trying to necessarily convince you, Kim, just explain!

[Melissa Dodge]

Now that's a good one for pondering. I too grew up playing the game with my brother, his friends, and an odd assortment of neighborhood kids. Maybe that's what I like about it. It was an equal opportunity pastime. It didn't matter your age, gender, height, weight, or speed. There was a place for just about anybody on the diamond. I know it's trite to go on about how it is the very essence and fabric of Americana... but it really is. It has become such a part of the commentary of our society that it is represented in every aspect of American Life. Think of the plethora of films about baseball: "Field of Dreams" extols the pure beauty and timelessness of having a catch with someone you love. "The Sandlot" glorifies the days of our youth when a whole day was spent playing outside with all the kids in the neighborhood and the greatest accomplishment of the day was scrounging up enough money to buy a ball. "A League of Their Own" dramatizes the need for distraction and stress relief during times of war and uncertainty.
With classic poems such as "Casey at the Bat" and "The Moon, the Mountain, and Mo" baseball has become ingrained in not only our literature and media but also in the American lexicon. Who hasn't figuratively 'struck out', 'hit a homer', or hoped they'd make it to 'second base'? Though I have a million reasons and examples of 'why baseball' I don't know that any of them would adequately define or encapsulate that wonderful deep down knowing of contentment when I'm at the ball field. The closest I may be able to come to it would be THE best book (sorry Austin--you haven't written the new best one---yet) ever written about baseball: "How Georgie Radbourn Saved Baseball" by David Shannon

[Austin]

Melissa, I continue to be impressed by your literate posts (and your taste in baseball poetry!!) I'll have to look up "How Georgie Radbourn Saved Baseball." Thanks for the tip!

[Nick]

I'm afraid to have to admit my favorite football team is the Cleveland "Browns". How is that for a nickname? It doesn't really represent anything. The question has always been: Was it named for the color? Was it named after Paul Brown? No one has answered that to my satisfaction. But, then again, does it really matter any more? How convenient their first big star was named Jim Brown!
Cleveland fought to keep the goofy name even after the team was moved to that other city on the bay which named that team after a nasty, filthy bird.