Baseball & Family: How Baseball has saved the American family

So it's been a while since I've last checked this. It's about time I dust the keys off. But to my defense the fall semester of my senior year has been a little stressful. I led my fraternity, Tau Kappa Epsilon, to the best overall float for the Homecoming Parade at Hofstra University. Talk about winning one for the little guy! That's the equivalent of 1997 Florida Marlins! The job couldn't have been done without the help of the lovely ladies of Alpha Phi (shoutout!). Despite what others may say, it was done through hard work and was absolutely worthy of the top prize--a trophy roughly the size of Earl Boykins. Can someone cue Kanye West?

Homecoming aside, my classes have been better than expected! One class I'm taking is entitled "Baseball in Literature". I know, right? It's a dream come true, isn't it? We've been reading famous books and discussing the effect they've had on culture, and how culture has effected these novels. The great part is that these are all books I should have read, but have been too lazy to get around to it (The Natural, Bang the Drum Slowly, The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennent to name a few).

Don't get me wrong, here. We do do more than just read baseball stories and discuss them. We write papers on baseball and its relationship with American culture. I just got my first paper back and it was B+ work. So I decided that B+ work is worthy enough to share with you, the respected reader! And if you don't like it...fuck off, I don't care what you think anyway.

I kid! I kid!

Baseball and Family: How Baseball Has Kept the American Family Together

The thick summer air slows the ball down before it hits the palm of my worn Rawlings mitt. I wind-up, focusing on the imaginary strike zone as my father waits patiently from the crouch, glove extended. Before I could deliver a devastating curve my mother calls out from the deck, “Boys! The burgers are ready,” and the game is stopped immediately. The gloves are dropped and the race to get the best burger is on. Even my Golden Retriever, Huckleberry, is in on the hunt. We all gather together at the table over burgers, buns, and baseball. The Red Sox are hosting the Yankees today, so there is a reason to watch the television from the dinner table. My father and I stayed glued to the screen, chatting about Dice-K’s chances shutting down the potent Yankee lineup, a modern-day Murderer’s Row. My mother even gets involved, even if it is superficial. “That Jacoby Ellsbury is just too cute!”

After dinner, we all sit down in the living room and watch intently as the game unfolds. When the Sox score a run from a wall-ball double off the Green Monster, we erupt from our seats—yes, even my mother. And when the Yankees answer back with two runs of their own in the seventh inning, we make sure to curse them as they round the bases as if the players could actually hear us—and yes, even my mother had some choice words.

Baseball has helped build strong families and kept them together since its inception before the 1900’s. Unlike its American rival, football, baseball has family values in its core. Fathers instill their love of the game in their new-born children, giving them gloves or putting a miniature bat in their hands before they can even walk upright. And as the children grow-up and start in their first tee-ball league they learn vital developmental skills, not only for the game of baseball, but for the game of life as well. Most importantly, on those sunny Saturday mornings when the games are played the whole family grabs their lawn chairs and bagged lunches and come together to celebrate the game as they watch one of their own play.

Where football is a game that brothers bash each other in the backyard, baseball is passed down—almost ritualistically—from a father to his son or daughter. There are certain nooks and crannies to the game that may seem trivial, but have a huge impact in the life of a child. For example, the process of going out for the first real glove with your father; from feeling out the glove to making sure it fits but that there’s still enough room to grow. And as soon as you get home what happens next? You can’t even use it! Your father greases up the mitt, throws a ball deep in the webbing, wraps a rubber band two-fold around it, and tells you to put in underneath your mattress for the weekend. Developmental skill number one: patience.
There is something very metaphorical about a father and a son having a catch in the backyard. The father is passing his knowledge of the game onto his son or daughter with every toss of the ball. It may not seem like much, but as we saw in Field of Dreams all Ray Kinsella wanted was to have a catch with his dad, whom he had a dysfunctional relationship with. In fact, the whole reason Ray built the field was for that exact reason: “If you build it, he [his father] will come”. There is an unspoken bond when that leather-bound ball hits the worn leather of the mitt—a perfect silence, where one knows what the other is exactly thinking without ever saying a word.

In the dawn of the Internet, text messaging, and interactive television, baseball helps children stay active and stay out of trouble. Unlike the Golden Era of baseball in 1940’s-50’s, today’s society almost demands that both parents work to provide for the family. As a result, the level of unsupervised children is through the roof—which can lead to causing trouble, experimentation with drugs and alcohol, and other damaging actions to pass the time. But baseball provides children with structured fun while teaching fundamentals of the game and in life. As you learn the game of baseball, you learn to have patience and wait for the right pitch; much like in life—timing is everything. There are eight other players on field that you must rely on in order to win the game. Developmental skill number two: trust. Baseball also teaches young players that if they work hard they will be rewarded. If you bust your butt at practice, it will pay off in the games. That same logic could be applied to schoolwork or business. Developmental skill number three: hard work pays off in the long run.

However, baseball is not limited only to the male end of the family. Women have played a pivotal role in how baseball has saved the American family. In fact, one might say that they are at the foundation of it. As a parent, more importantly as a mother, it is imperative to take an active interest in the interests of their children. The role of the mother may not be as intricate as the father—who teaches the game more often than not—but she certainly plays a contributing factor. Personally, if it wasn’t for my mother’s nourishing encouragement after those 0-for-4 days I might have quit playing when I was 14. She never fully understood the game—or fully enjoyed it for that matter—but she enjoyed that her son enjoyed it. And that’s all that should be expected. Throughout baseball literature, women were no more than glorified cheerleaders as it was. They were put in the story to support the hero; to support him in times of good and nurture him when times fell rough. Getting back to Field of Dreams, Ray’s wife, Annie, stands beside Ray as he cuts down a third of his corn field on a whacky dream he had. And in small-town Iowa, where money is thing as it is, that is economic suicide. She’d be crazy to let him do that. But she does and she defends the decision to her brother while embracing her husband’s reconnection with his childhood. The role of the woman in the family is to keep the family a loving, close unit. That is exactly what Annie Kinsella did, even if she wasn’t 100% sure about her husband’s hunch.

The game goes on filled with the jeers and cheers of an actual baseball stadium. As the Red Sox take the lead in the late innings my family takes a collective sigh of relief as Jonathan Papelbon walks to the mound. And in this busy world we live in, we will all go back to our lives after that last strike is called. Father will go handle the family bills. Mother will clean up the kitchen and prepare for her meeting tomorrow. And the kids will get back be getting ready for school. But for those three hours and fifteen minutes everything stops and we are together, enjoying our company and our team. Developmental skill number four: like a team, family is always there for each other.