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America’s Best Sport

 “Baseball is like church.  Many attend, few understand.”

Leo Durocher

 I believe that baseball is the best game ever invented.  No other sport compares to it, really.  It is like poetry played out on brown dirt and green grass.  Baseball is part of our character, culture, and history - America’s best sport.
 Abner Doubleday is credited with developing the game we know as baseball in Cooperstown, New York, in the summer of 1839.  Some dispute this story, however.  References to games resembling baseball in the United States date back to the 18th century.  Baseball’s direct ancestors appear to be the English games of cricket and rounders.  Prior to the American Revolution, variations of these games were being played in schoolyards and on college campuses across the country.
 In September of 1845, a group of men in New York City founded the Knickerbocker Baseball Club.  One of the members - bank clerk and volunteer firefighter - Alexander Joy Cartwright, created a set of rules that would form the basis for modern baseball.  These included the three-strike rule, a diamond-shaped field, and fowl lines.  The Knickerbockers played the first official game of baseball against a team of cricket players in 1846.
 It is said that baseball came of age during the Civil War, with soldiers on both sides participating.  Baseball was the most popular sport for both armies, causing it to spread nationwide after the war.  
 Professional baseball debuted with the Cincinnati Red Stockings in 1869.  In 1876 the National League that we know today was created, followed by the American League in 1901.  Baseball has grown from there.  Once considered our national pastime, baseball has lost ground to football, basketball, hockey, and soccer.  But the game lives on and is still popular today.  Here are some reasons why…
 Even if you don’t like the game itself, baseball is the best sport to watch in person.  You can be outside in the sunshine, enjoy a hot dog and beer, and feel like a true American.  There’s nothing like the sights and sounds of a ball game – the crack of a bat, the pop of a ball in a mitt, strike calls, organ music.  Stadiums are like cathedrals, and when entering the sight of perfectly manicured emerald green grass can take your breath away.  A ball game can be a joy for your senses.
 Baseball provides a relaxed environment for players and fans while at the same time building a sense of tension and drama.  Not being controlled by the clock gives baseball a composed cadence and rhythm.  There is more freedom in the game.  Every pitch and play can make a difference.  
 There are mental benefits to baseball as well.  For players and coaches, it is an analytical, strategy driven, calculated sport requiring long term thought.  The defense has the ball, unusual in sport, and you must know in advance what you are going to do.  It’s like playing 3D chess with cleats on.  For fans, there are mental benefits as well.  Smartphone addicted short attention span humans may not appreciate baseball, thinking it is boring and too slow.  But watching baseball stretches your attention span, just like reading a good book.  In our fast-paced, instant gratification, dopamine filled social media world, baseball fosters patience and a calm demeanor like no other sport.  It builds character.
 Baseball is good training for life because it teaches us to deal with failure (whether you are a player or fan).  Life is filled with constant failure, as is baseball.  The batter who fails 70% of the time (batting .300) is among the very best in the league.  Baseball is especially suited to our American sensibilities because it teaches us how to cope with failure.  In America we have the freedom to fail, and we do.  Baseball shows us how to deal with it.
 Baseball also offers a magical mix between both the singular and plural, the lone hero and the reliable team.  Baseball gracefully incorporates a perfect balance between individual and group effort which is superior to other sports.
 And baseball presents a picture of a real meritocracy, what America aspires to be.  Here luck matters least.  Teams play 162 games over a six- month season (the longest season in any sport).  At the end of each season, each team is its record, with the stats to prove it.  
 There is a charm to baseball that other sports can’t match.  Like Brad Pitt said, playing the character of Billy Beane in the movie Moneyball, “It’s hard not to be romantic about baseball.”

© 2024 Jody Dyer
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