Impact of Baseball on American Culture and Society

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Baseball has for a long time been a staple in the American sporting culture as baseball and America have grown up together. Exploring the different ages and stages of American society, reveals how baseball has served as both a public reflection of, and vehicle for, the evolution of American culture and society. Many American ways including our landscapes, traditional songs, and pastimes all bear the mark of a game that continues to be identified with America's morals and aspirations. In this paper I will be addressing the long residuals of baseball as it specifically relates to the emergence of the American nation and its principles of nationalism. This is a particularly important issue because baseball seems to be a perfect representative system having many comparative analogies to the larger system of development, America. Since the sport first emerged, baseball and America have shared the same values, responded to the same events, and struggled with the same social and economic issues. To learn of the ideals concerning the sport of baseball in America, is to know the heart and mind of America. Baseball developed before the Civil War but did not achieve professional status until the 1870s (The Baseball Glove, 2004). In 1871 the National Association of Professional Baseball Players was formed. Unfortunately the organization ran into financial hardships and was abandoned in 1875. The following year marked the formation of the National League of Professional Baseball Players, which was soon shortened to the National League (Ibid). In 1884 the rival American League was founded and th... ... middle of paper ... ... Retrieved November 11, 2014, from http://www.mtssidelines.com No author. (July 2013). Baseball as America. USA Today. Retrieved November 14, 2014, from http://usatoday.com No author. (2004). The Baseball Glove Comes to Baseball, 1875. Retrieved November 15, 2014, from www.eyewitnesstohistory.com. Rader, B.G. (2004). The African American quest for equity in sports. American sports: From the age of folk games to the age of televised sports (5th ed.). (pp. 62-63). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Spalding, Albert G. (n.d.). America's National Game. Retrieved November 10, 2014, from http:///www.barnard.colombia.edu/amstud/resources/ nationalism/ spalding.htm Silk, Michael. (2005, Nov 2). Week 9 Fall 2005: Star Spangled Sport: Nation, Culture & American Exceptionalism. Presented at a KNES 293 lecture at the University of Maryland.

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