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The national pastime trade-off: how baseball sells US foreign policy and the American way

2011; Routledge; Volume: 28; Issue: 17 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/09523367.2011.627195

1743-9035

Robert Elias,

Sports Analytics and Performance

Abstract From Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War to George W. Bush and the Iraq War, we can observe baseball's role in developing the American empire, first at home and then beyond US shores. From Albert Spalding and baseball's first world tour to Bud Selig and the World Baseball Classic, we can see the globalisation of America's national pastime, and baseball's missionary role in spreading the American dream. To maintain itself as the American national game, however, baseball has pursued a 'national pastime trade-off,' which has brought benefits but has come with a high price for the game. Is it still worth pursuing? This essay will address that question while chronicling baseball's own foreign policy and the sport's involvement in US diplomatic and military history. Keywords: national pastime trade-offAmerican empireflag-waving patriotismwarinterventionresistancemilitarismCold Warsespionagediplomacyglobalisationsteroidswar on terrorismSeptember 11 Notes 1. For a complete treatment of this argument see Elias, The Empire Strikes Out. 2. Altherr, '"A Place Leavel Enough to Play Ball"', 15; Regalado, 'Viva Baseball!', 321. 3. Kirsch, Baseball in Blue and Gray, 58; Bowman, 'Soldiers at Play', 35; Wolter, 'Bats and Saddles', 25; Mark Sappenfield, 'Baseball in Wartime? It's been the American Way Since 1861; Season Opens for a Sport Uniquely Tied to Military Conflict', Christian Science Monitor, 31 March 2003. 4. Arnett, 'Remember the Maine!', 3; Briley, 'The Rhetoric of Empire', 5; Beran, 'Americans in the Philippines', 62; Gems, 'Sports, War and Ideological Imperialism', 573; Wakefield, Playing to Win, 107; Pope, 'An Army of Athletes', 435. 5. Mead, Baseball Goes to War, 3; Anton and Nowlin, When Baseball Went to War, 67; Bullock, Playing For Their Nation, 213; Parr, 'The Korean War and Baseball', 110. 6. Briley, 'Ambiguous Patriotism', 165; Cockcroft, Latinos in Beisbol, 96; Elias, 'Exporting the Horsehide Dream', 157; Jack Curry, 'Let the Bats and Patriotism Ring to Celebrate a New Season', New York Times, 8 April 1991; Joe Gergen, 'As Johnny Comes Marching Home, Major League Baseball Stands in Salute', Sporting News, 22 April 1991. 7. Brown, 'Waging Baseball, Playing War', 51; Gems, The Athletic Crusade, 92; Reaves, Taking In A Game, 49; Beran, 'Americans in the Philippines', 62; Gems, 'Sports, Colonialism, and United States Imperialism', 3; Burgos, Playing America's Game, 85; Morris, 'Taiwan', 154; Ruck, The Tropic of Baseball, 45. 8. Phillips, The Mexican Jumping Beans, 79; McKelvey, Mexican Raiders in the Major Leagues, 98. 9. Maraniss, Clemente, 190. 10. Pope, Patriotic Games, 71. 11. Huston, 'The Batting Eye and Shooting Eye', 11; Price, '"What So Proudly We Hailed"', 7. 12. Mullan, 'Sport, Ethnicity and the Reconstruction of the Self', 1. 13. Seymour, Baseball, 167. 14. Carriere, 'A Diamond Is a Boy's Best Friend', 351. 15. Zirin, 'What's My Name, Fool?', 47. 16. Elias, The Empire Strikes Out, 190. 17. Price, 'More Than a Game', 1; Briley, 'Baseball and the Cold War', 15. 18. Warfield, The Roaring Redhead, 84. 19. Davidoff, The Catcher Was A Spy. 20. Ibid., 107. 21. Crepeau, Baseball, 55. 22. Montville, The Big Bam, 199. 23. Leutzinger, 'Lefty O'Doul and the Development of Japanese Baseball', 30. 24. Thomas W. Lippman, 'US Ready to Play Ball with Cuba: Clinton to Ease Trade Embargo, Using Orioles as Envoys', Washington Post, 5 Jan. 1999. 25. Lamster, Spalding's World Tour; Zeiler, Ambassadors in Pinstripes. 26. Ibid. 27. Jake Hooker, 'Joining China to Find a Yao Who Can Hit'. New York Times, 31 Jan. 2007. 28. Krich, El Beisbol, 38; Ebert, 'How Rawlings Uses Haitian Women', 17; Ebert, 'Un-sporting Multinationals', 34; Rice, 'Where Angels Fear to Tread', 53. 29. Jonathan Mahler, 'A Whole New Ballgame; The World Baseball Classic Raises Issues of Patriotism and Identity', Los Angeles Times, 5 March 2006; Kelly, The American Game, 33; Robert Andrew Powell and Alan Schwarz, 'Baseball's New World Order', The New York Times, 5 Feb. 2006. 30. Stone, 'The Home Run'. 31. Ward, 'The Siege Gun of the Diamond', 313. 32. Benjamin Rader, 'A Bat and a Ball: Exclamation Point of Our Time: The Home Run Mystique', Christian Science Monitor, 1 Oct. 1996. 33. Richard Ben Cramer, 'The America That Ruth Built', Newsweek, 24 June 1998. 34. Canseco, Juiced. 35. Bryant, Juicing the Game. 36. Ibid. 37. Nathanson, 'Major League Baseball as Enron'; Bryant, Juicing the Game, 82. 38. Ron Briley, 'The Myth and Reality of Major League Baseball', History News Network, 10 April 2006, available at http://hnn.us/articles/23553.html. 39. Kraus, 'A Shelter in the Storm', 88. 40. Steve Kroner, 'A Game of Healing: Documentary on Baseball and Post-September 11', San Francisco Chronicle, 10 Sept.2004. 41. Ardolino, 'Playing in the Bush League'; Ned Martel, 'Learning After 9/11 That There is a Balm in Baseball', New York Times, 14 Sept. 2004. 42. Nielsen, 'Exertions'. 43. Edwin Chen, 'Bush Gives Fear a Bronx Cheer at World Series', Los Angeles Times, 31 Oct. 2001. 44. Ibid. 45. Nielsen, 'Exertions', 174. 46. Ken Rosenthal, 'Now Isn't the Time to Argue Over Money', Sporting News, 24 Sept. 2001. 47. Dan Wachtell, 'Make Baseball, Not War: Returning to a Pastime', Daily Princetonian (Princeton University), 8 April 2002. 48. Tamara Gabbard, 'Retired Baseball Players Visit Troops in Afghanistan', available at http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=49902 49. Cogliano, 'Baseball and American Exceptionalism', 145. 50. Blair Larson, 'Iraqi Children Learn American Pastime', US Army Special Operations Command Service News, 14 July 2004, available at http://news.soc.mil; Kirk Semple, 'Baseball in Iraq: As Pastimes Go, It's Anything But', New York Times, 7 Sept. 2005. 51. Ira Berkow, 'Hall of Fame Will Tolerate No Dissent', New York Times, 11 April 2003; 'Anti-War Actors Get Apology from Hall of Fame', People's Weekly World, 26 April 2003. 52. Ibid. 53. Ibid. 54. Enders, 'Petroskey Shames Hall', 45. 55. 'Author Kahn Snubs Hall of Fame in Protest', Detroit Free Press, 12 April 2003. 56. Mitch Albom, 'The Lunacy of Misguided Patriotism'. Detroit Free Press, 13 April 2003. 57. Gwen Knapp, 'Bullheaded Decision by Hall President', San Francisco Chronicle, 13 April 2003. 58. 'Baseball Donations from US Military in Afghanistan'. 59. Richard Crepeau, 'The Sports Song of Patriotism', 29 May 2004, available at http://www.poppolitics.com/articles/2003-02038-flag protest.shtml 60. Dave Zirin, 'Carlos Delgado on Deck: Blue Jays Slugger Stands Up Against War', Counter-Punch, 9 July 2004, available at http://coutnerpunch.org/zirn07092004.html, accessed 6 August 2011. 61. Sewell Chan, '7th-Inning Stretch Yields a Lawsuit', New York Times, 16 April 2009. 62. William C. Rhoden, 'Delgado Makes a Stand by Taking a Seat', New York Times, 21 July 2004; Pollak, 'Patriot at the Bat', 10. 63. William Arkin, 'If Only War Reporting Were More like Sports Reporting', Washington Post, 22 May 2007. 64. Littlefield, 'Sports Misused', 109. 65. Paul Lukas, 'Flag-Waving', Village Voice, 2 Oct. 2001. 66. David Wallis, 'Killed Cartoons: Censorship is a Threat not Only to Speech but to Satirical Images that Sting Targets or Offend', San Francisco Chronicle, 11 March 2007. 67. Dave McKenna, 'The Washington Nationalists; America; Love It or Leave the Stadium', Washington City Paper, 22–28 July 2005. 68. MLB.com, 'Familiar tradition has new look for 'Team of the Military', available at http://sandiego.padres.mlb.com/news/print.jsp?ymd=20110630&content_id=21208578&vkey=news_sd&c_id = sd 69. Steve DiMeglio, 'Zito Leads Effort to Aid Soldiers', USA Today, 28 July 2006. 70. Ibid. 71. Ibid. 72. Dave Ring, 'Bush's Strike Out', Texas Tech Daily Toreador, 13 Jan. 2006. 73. Pope, 'Sport and Pax Americana', 2. 74. Gill, 'The Shots Heard Round the World', 50–1. 75. Stephen Kinser, 'In Politics as In Baseball', The Guardian, 29 May 2007. 76. Elias, The Empire Strikes Out, 293; Jozsa, Baseball in Crisis, 30.