Introductory Quotes

Reprinted from the OAH Magazine of History
7 (Summer 1992). ISSN 0882-228X
Copyright (c) 1992, Organization of American Historians
 

These quotes introduce the topic of baseball in American culture. A. G. Spalding's quote might raise questions of how nineteenth-century Americans spent their leisure time, and students might compare and contrast contemporary leisure activities. Class and gender differences in leisure experiences should also be examined. Political columnist George Will's quote may be used as a starting point for discussing the concept of progress in American society. Using baseball as a metaphor, students might examine whether urbanization and technological development have increased the quality of life.

1. To enter upon a deliberate argument to prove that Baseball is our National Game; that it has all the attributes of American origin, American character and unbounded public favor in America, seems a work of supererogation. It is to undertake the elucidation of a patent fact; the sober demonstration of an axiom; it is like a solemn declaration that two plus two equal four. --A. G. Spalding, 1911

2. Human beings seem to take morose pleasure from believing that once there was a Golden Age, some lost Eden or Camelot or superior ancient civilization, peopled by heroes and demigods, an age of greatness long lost and irrecoverable. Piffle. Things are better than ever, at least in baseball, which is what matters most. -- George Will, 1990

The following quotes seek to establish baseball's cultural and historical context with an emphasis upon the 1920s. Students should consider what values are supposedly embodied in a sport like baseball and question whether these values are uniquely American. This thinking process should lead into the concept of Americanization and the role of cultural pluralism in American society. Cobb and Ruth may be used as cultural symbols to examine the change from the productive values of the nineteenth-century capitalist individualism to the mass culture ethic of consumption.

3. Baseball is the greatest single force working for Americanization. No other game appeals so much to the foreign-born youngster and nothing, not even the schools, teaches the American spirit so quickly, or inculcates the ideas of sportsmanship or fair play as thoroughly. -- Hugh Fullerton, Atlanta Constitution, 1919

4. In its theory and practice baseball embodies some of the central preoccupations of that cultural fantasy we like to think of as the American Dream. Anyone who does not understand the game cannot hope to understand the country. A subtle and complex activity, it rewards not brute strength, but agility, intelligence, imagination, and daring. -- George Grella, Massachusetts Review, 1975

5. Regardless of the verdict of juries, no player who throws a ball game, no player that undertakes or promises to throw a ball game, no player that sits in conference with a bunch of crooked players and gamblers where the ways and means of throwing a game are discussed and does not promptly tell his club about it, will ever play professional baseball. --Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, August, 1921

6. Nice guys finish last. --Leo Durocher, 1940

7. When I played ball, I didn't play for fun. Its no pink tea, and molly-coddles had better stay out. It's a contest and everything that implies, a struggle for supremacy, a survival of the fittest. --Ty Cobb, 1961

8. What the hell has Hoover got to do with it? Besides, I had a better year than he did. --Babe Ruth, 1930, on being informed that his salary demands would exceed the salary allotted President Hoover.

9. Through the means of this professional capitalist sport, the capitalists were able to hoodwink the greater part of the American workers to eat, sleep, and talk nothing but baseball for a week. Baseball is still a method used in detracting the American workers from their miserable conditions. --Walter Burke, The Young Worker, 1929

It is imperative that students investigate which Americans could pursue American values and the American Dream. The following quotes focusing on Jackie Robinson and his legacy address the role of race in American society. Baseball may be used as a lens through which to view African-American history and the extent to which sport offers a model for social mobility. Examining race, sport, and culture may also encourage students to consider gender exemplified by the professional All-American Girls' Baseball League during the Second World War.

10. Baseball took up the cudgel for democracy, an unassuming but superlative Negro boy ascended the heights of excellence to prove the righteousness of the experiment. And prove it in the only correct crucible for such an experiment--the crucible of white hot competition. --Joe Bostic, Amsterdam News, April 27, 1946

11. Robinson compelled millions of decent white people to confront the fact of race prejudice--a fact they had been able to ignore for generations before. The consequences of the waves his appearance made spread far beyond baseball, far beyond sports, far beyond politics, even to the very substance of a culture. --Leonard Koppett, Sporting News, 1972

12. Baseball has done a lot for me. It has taught me that regardless of who you are and regardless of how much money you make, you are still a Negro. --Hank Aaron, 1964

13. I saw life as all of a piece. The hypocrisies of the baseball industry could not possibly have been sustained unless they were symptoms of wider affliction. Wherever I turned, I found fresh evidence that this was so. Baseball was socially relevant, and so was my rebellion against it. -- Curt Flood, 1970

The final set of quotations deal with issues of capitalism and community, focusing on the 1958 franchise shift of the Dodgers from Brooklyn to Los Angeles. In discussing the franchise shift, students should consider the functions of sport franchises in a community and the obligations of a business to a local community.

14. The fact that the Dodgers' move can be justified from the civic perspective is, of course, no consolation to the fans in Brooklyn. The lesson for cities with similar emotional bonds to a franchise is that those feelings must be translated into commercial or financial ties that can't be broken so easily. --Neal Sullivan, 1987

15. The Dodgers are the best-run franchise in all of baseball because of a lot of other things they do right. Compare Dodger Stadium, for example, to other entertainment successes of the West Coast--Disneyland. Dodger Stadium is squeaky clean, beautifully landscaped and rests in a striking setting. As at Disneyland, Dodger Stadium attendants--even in the parking lot--are civil. The bathrooms are clean and safe. -- Forbes, 1982

16. I am a young girl of 16 and enjoy baseball to great extents. If the Dodgers move to Los Angeles I will no longer enjoy the right given to me by my creator. Please keep them here. Baseball keeps a lot of us teenagers off the streets and prevents juvenile delinquency. -- Gloria Cerrato to New York City Mayor Robert Wagner, 1957

17. Putting aside the flamboyance and glitter of other cities, Cincinnatians have long shown their willingness to be seen as a place where hard work and family come first but where the threat of dullness is relieved by music and sport, beer, sausage, and frequently recurring festivals. One thread that has linked these attitudes and values has been the game of baseball and the city's professional team. -- Robert Harris Walker, 1988