The NY Times had a recent article about our National Past Time becoming less releavant. Seems people just don't watch baseball anymore like they used to. They go to the games but they don't watch on television as much. Something is up in Mudville. Could it be the doping scandals where one big hitter falls after another. Or as the Times speculates is there something else going on. Could it be we are changing.
Baseball used to a sport of action back in the nineteenth century. It was considered a very exciting sport. One that rivaled the American spirit for settling the country. But now it is our past time. Our kickback sport. Problem is we as a people don't really kick back anymore. Football is our sport now. Something violent. Something dangerous. Something unpredicatable. Baseball is none of these things. Baseball is a conservative sport played by conservative men. A long drawn out game of chess that flares up and then goes back to sleep.
But we are not a sleepy people. We just don't have the time to kick back and watch men bat a ball around and trot around bases. We want to see gladiators who knock each other senseless. We want to see men literally try and knock each other out. And we crave more. We may have outgrown our own national sport. Our life moves at nanosecond speed now and we have not a moment to lose. We literally don't have time to eat anymore much less watch a slow game of baseball.
So to take a day and sit back and have a beer and watch men in the summer knock a ball around. I don't know. Sounds pretty nineteenth century to me....sounds pretty nice.
www.williamhazelgrove.com
The Pitcher
Baseball used to a sport of action back in the nineteenth century. It was considered a very exciting sport. One that rivaled the American spirit for settling the country. But now it is our past time. Our kickback sport. Problem is we as a people don't really kick back anymore. Football is our sport now. Something violent. Something dangerous. Something unpredicatable. Baseball is none of these things. Baseball is a conservative sport played by conservative men. A long drawn out game of chess that flares up and then goes back to sleep.
But we are not a sleepy people. We just don't have the time to kick back and watch men bat a ball around and trot around bases. We want to see gladiators who knock each other senseless. We want to see men literally try and knock each other out. And we crave more. We may have outgrown our own national sport. Our life moves at nanosecond speed now and we have not a moment to lose. We literally don't have time to eat anymore much less watch a slow game of baseball.
So to take a day and sit back and have a beer and watch men in the summer knock a ball around. I don't know. Sounds pretty nineteenth century to me....sounds pretty nice.
www.williamhazelgrove.com
The Pitcher
