And I’m not just saying that because I’m high on the fact that my beloved Boston Red Sox are in the World Series. I’ve long thought this, and every time I sit in the Fenway stands or watch a playoff game on a chilly October night, I can’t help but think that this sport symbolizes all that we often refer to as "Americana."
If professional football — which is a great game slowly being ruined by commercial breaks, money, and rule changes in the name of "safety" — is what we are today, than baseball is what we were yesterday: methodical, individualistic, and maybe even a little obstinate.
Its modern incarnation was invented in 1845, and one look at any game in progress will show you that this pastime certainly comes from the era before electricity and advertising. The contests take far too long and mess up countless TV and commercial schedules as a result, but the players won’t take the field in the rain, so whomever is airing the game has to have a few old episodes of "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" on deck to eat up time, just in case.
It doesn’t often use instant replay, and most of the calls stand as they are, for better or worse. And even though some modern amenities like LED scoreboards or overhead lights have been added to the parks, and the players are bigger and stronger and maybe more sober than they once were, the best parts of baseball haven’t changed much since the New York Knickerbockers dropped a lopsided 23-1 decision to the "New York Nine" in 1846.
It’s tough to see this when the cameras are focused on the players’ faces, as they often are, or only showing that thin stretch of no man’s land that runs from the pitchers’ mound to the batters’ box.
But when they draw back and take the panoramic view, it’s there in all its New World glory: stands swarming with a great mass of fans, all hoping and praying and concentrating their energy on the two men in the middle of the field who face off like street-fighters in a back alley.
Then the hitter turns on a slider and the ball sails and a roar erupts as the runners spring ahead and the outfielders do their solemn work, and in seconds the ball is back in the pitcher’s hands once more.
It’s one of the few sports that, if you could somehow turn off the sound and watch from the top of the stadium, it would look very much the same in 2013 as it did in 1913. In our complicated digital age, there’s something to be said for that kind of simplicity.
So when the 2013 World Series begins tonight, and two teams that have a combined 243 years of history between them take to that lovely grass of the Fenway Park field, you know I’ll be watching.
Because even though baseball, as one Twitter user said the other day, is like "the old lady who still writes checks at the grocery store," that doesn’t mean that every pitch doesn’t give us a gorgeous glimpse into days gone by.
Email: janoski@northjersey.com
http://www.northjersey.com/sports/229042391__October_Classic__remains_an_American_tradition.html?page=all
Tags: Baseball Boston Red Sox Sports St. Louis Cardinals World Series
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