Take Me Out to the Ball Game
Although, I prefer a hotdog and a beer to peanuts and cracker jacks...
Americans have passed up the divine imperative to rest, the tradition of taking time out to recoup from work not unique to any religion or culture. We have further mistaken vegetation and dissociation for restorative leisure. Leisure is an active recharging of our spirits by means of enjoyment for its own sake. I went to a Fort Wayne Tincaps game for the first time in years, and I found myself marveling at how perfect baseball games are for true leisure. Baseball is a communal affair. It is restorative human interaction for its own sake. For Americans, baseball yields a feeling of belonging due to its customary place of honor in our culture. The survival of baseball as an American leisure activity points out how effective the sport is at its end of enjoyment for its own sake. Here, I want to talk about why baseball is an archetypal leisure activity which we modern Americans should make a point to enjoy.
Our culture likes to equate goodness with efficiency and productivity. We are obsessed with utility. Our capitalist economy drives our way of life, not the other way around. The demonization of “useless” leisure and hobbies in favor of the side hustle or “influencer” account reflects our self-created idol. While those things are fashionable, they aren’t necessary and certainly aren’t restorative. What are necessary are human relationships, enjoyment, and rest. The surreptitiously useful game of baseball feeds those three things. Baseball is absolutely useless prima facie. The actions of the players and our complementary zeal to watch them have no real utilitarian sense. The decidedly un-utilitarian qualities of the game are precisely what make it such a great leisure activity.
I went to some baseball games throughout the week, and I was pleased to find the relaxed and present feeling among the participants. There isn’t much relaxation in the ice hockey games that I’m used to; those are all-out physical battles. I found the baseball game so much more casual, to its credit. The fans were attentive to, but not totally overtaken by the sport. The players casually hanging on the dugout fence seemed to take much the same posture. Everyone was enjoying the game, enjoying one another’s company, and perhaps enjoying a Miller or three. I saw an encouraging level of attentive human presence which properly belongs to leisure. Things we do now like “doom scrolling” social media or binge watching a show with no real meaning behind it are false-flag leisure activities. Baseball games on the other hand allow for real, restorative time in community without dissociation. I was thrilled to see so many people concentrating on one another in that moment and their sharing of the game rather than Facebook, Reuters or Bloomberg.
Furthermore, the eminent history of baseball as an American pastime positions the sport to be especially meaningful to us as Americans. Baseball offers a wholesome tradition in a time such as ours when many Americans feel culturally homeless. As a lifelong hockey fan, I was truthfully taken aback with the sense of belonging I felt at a baseball game, but after reflection I saw why. I remembered watching Sandlot and Rookie of the Year as a kid, playing little league, and playing games in my backyard with family. I noticed baseball-based expressions in my vocabulary: ‘going to bat for someone,’ ‘coming out of left field’ to name a couple. The familiarity of the 7th inning stretch song was eerie because I hadn’t thought of the ditty in years but found myself singing each word. Something drew me back to the ballpark two more times that week. It wasn’t just the sport. The draw was a deeply traditional cultural expression of leisure.
Beyond the role of baseball in restorative activity, it’s a great way to spend a day of rest. We have a divine imperative to rest for one day a week. God orders us to honor the sabbath for our own sake. We should be taking full advantage of baseball’s positive qualities as a supremely enjoyable way to go about this rest and restoration. Baseball has many dimensions which make it an ideal way for us Americans to get our leisure time in. It is an activity undertaken in community for its own sake, to have a good time, enjoy the day, and enjoy one another. The sense of community and connection with a tradition only serve to amplify these effects. We should be taking one another out to the ballgame.