Baseball Is America

Book excerpt: Americas Favorite Pastime with its foreign taproot evolved into the modern game. Baseball is traced in the 364-page book from its European origins plus much deeper sources. Cultural beginnings, including the rally monkey, hot dog, peanut and anthems provide historical perspective. The American spirit is captured through baseball, beating to the rhythm of the American culture, sometimes as its direction, but most times its reflection. The goodness of the game exists in both its players serving as role models for the youth, with the Yankee Clipper leading the charge, plus inducing positive progressive change highlighted by the 1947color barrier penetration by Jackie. Type and character makeup of leadership in America and baseball is positioned as integral to the cultural socialization process. Christian religious tenets previously employed in traditional America have been metaphorically Billy-Goated out of the field of play. An orchestrated reshaping from its Founding principles using education and media as hypnotic tools promoting secular-humanist ideals and values has fundamentally transformed America into a nation ripe for governance by the New World Order as One Global Family. The readers thought process is directed to answering the question as to what is the American way? The shear ugliness of baseball bore its soul to the American public during the Synthetic Era as characterized by serpentine-type Congressional hearings involving performance-enhancing-drug use. The author boldly declares America to be a nation on some sort of drug indifferent to toxic societal effects and meritocracy interference. Cultural issues including an intellectual history of PEDs, their affects on performance and leakage into the tributaries plus the evolution of the Promethean Project are well documented. Comparisons are made between the sins of Shoeless Joe and Charlie Hustle and the typical Synthetic Era ballplayer. Hazards of playing ball are probed by comparison to perceived dangers of hit-by-pitch and the Iraq War, shark attacks and automobile accidents. Political perspectives are injected into the read using metaphors, baseball-speak and satire.