Is Baseball still the American Pastime?

Elysian Field, where the first organized baseball was played.

It is my intention to discuss about whether baseball is still the American pastime or has lost its luster and become too general. In doing so, I will delve into the rise of one of the contemporary American sports, baseball, and explore its embedded values which align with what people of Stars and Stripes hold dearly. To start, one thing has to be stated. Our focus is not to be laid on the intervention of the American government or its business to this game nor does this reflect my opinion of whether they had good or bad impacts on the development and the rise of the baseball.

It now is largely a fact than an idea that, throughout the ages, every culture invents its own ball game that embraces the society’s value, and some even use sticks. The perfect example is cricket in Great Britain, my beloved country. The sport displays the perfect blend of violence, lawlessness and elegance which are values that British gentlemen endorsed back then. In this fashion, the citizens of America have commenced its own sort. Although its origin is yet to be known, general consensus among the historians is that this game has its basis on the British game of rounders.  According to some reports, the sport started to garner people’s attention in the early nineteenth century in the names of “town ball”, “base”, or “baseball”.

Alexander Cartwright is the “Father of the Modern Baseball”.

Still, the uncertainty of rules prevailed throughout the nation until a great man by the name of Alexander Cartwright (though a legend has it that Abner Doubleday is to be credited for this achievement) had formalized a set of rules for the game. Mr. Cartwright, referred as the “The Father of Modern Baseball”, founded a club team called Knickerbockers Baseball Team in 1846, and the first organized game of this sport was played by this club in a verdant field of Hoboken, N.J. called Elysian Fields. Thenceforth popular the game was to be and professionalized it was – an anti-amateurism movement that is regrettable. And, it relished its dominance in terms of popularity in sports throughout the 20^th century despite World War I and II.

We glanced at the rise of American baseball, and thus we may question why this ungentlemanly game without roughness or violence (bench-clearing doesn’t count as this is close to a violence caused by the loss of emotional control) has been so dear to America that it has lasted more than a century. To suggest a possible explanation, it is best for us to now explore what people in America value and how embedded values in the game may align with Americans’ interests and possibly people from other nations as well.

It has come to my observation that Americans love the opportunity for self-gratification, in a belief that a hard work may lift them among the crowd. Yet, what’s ironic about these people is the fact that they still want to be a part of something bigger than themselves while achieving the former goal. These people want to be involved in a community regardless of its scale. In this regard, it is undeniable that Americans support individualism, and the individualism has been instilled in baseball as well.

In baseball, a hitter competes against nine opponent players whereas, in football, eleven players play against eleven opponents. This does not only apply to a hitter but to a pitcher as well who go against nine batters. Furthermore, when a batter hits a homerun, he himself is praised for his excellence whereas, in football, every player is mentioned in one play because they all played a crucial part in the game. So, in baseball, while one player is ascribed for his excellence, he still is the part of the team. The comparison can go on forever, but one thing to be acknowledged is the fact that baseball reflects individualism more than any other sports, and thus baseball deserves to be accepted as the American pastime.

Yet, it now is a fear of some people that the game of small ball and stick has lost its luster, and these people argue that it has become just another sport as boxing is and less dominant than football or basketball, even car racing – a sport that is more of a British sport in regard to its resemblance to the horse racing. It is undeniable that their claim possesses such a convincing reasoning that we shall welcome the debate of whether baseball is not the American pastime anymore.

Madison Bumgarner’s pitches against the Royals was brilliant.

In regard to its audience ratings, professional baseball is losing its audience. One indicator is the statistics comparing game one of 1985 World Series to the first game of World Series in this year. In 1985 when Kansas City Royals played in World Series, the game one drew 34.5 million viewers whereas, in this year, Kansas City Royals’ game one in the World Series only drew 12.2 million viewers. It is quite a disappointing statistics, especially in the consideration of the Royals’ dramatic rises against upper tier teams in the American League. People’s interests laid more on the return of Lebron James, a NBA star, to the Cavaliers than Madison Bumgarner, a starting pitcher of the Giants, whose dominant pitches against the Royals were worthy of national interest.

With this knowledge about the ratings, we may question whether baseball is still the American pastime or has it lost its luster to other sports. It is hardly refutable that the ratings have dropped over the years, but it’s also arguable that the ratings shall not be the main indicator as the ratings for the media should not assess the media’s success. And it is my belief that ratings cannot deny the fact that baseball is the sport that truly reflects what Americans value the most, which is individualism. So thus, with this reasoning, my conclusion is that baseball remains to be the American pastime.