Baseball: Bringing Together the Usa

Baseball: Bringing Together the U.S.A.

The sport of Baseball possesses the prestigious label of America’s national pastime, as it has been the most popular professional sport over many generations. Not only does the sport instill morals such as teamwork, respect, and discipline, it also gathers mass crowds consisting of citizens from across the United States. Most importantly, it brings together the United States as a whole. In a time of economic crisis, baseball has become a constant reminder of how our country gathers and shows extreme pride for the nation. Shea Stadium was one of the first stepping-stones of bringing the nation back to normal after the tragic events of September 11, 2001.

Examples of this act are relevant in the writings of Clifford Geertz in his “Notes on the Balinese Cockfight” article. Geertz experienced events that embraced him by how the culture of Bali merged as villagers to watch the sport of cockfighting. Geertz not only witnessed this event, but took place in the crowd where he provided the public with a thick description taking deeper meaning of what was withheld amongst the Balinese culture. Both baseball games held on October 11, 2011 and May 2, 2011 imparted to September 11, 2001. Geertz’ documented experience strictly relates to the significance of the events that occurred at Shea Stadium and Yankee Stadium on those dates while a much more complex meaning of the game of baseball demonstrated how the nation was brought together as a whole.

September 11, 2001 left the nation in pain and sadness as the United States airlines was hijacked crashing into the World Trade Center collapsing both towers. The Pentagon was also a crash site for one of the planes. Both these attacks left the nation in awe with great concerns of what could happen next and startled the safety and security of our country. Shortly after September 11, 2001 on Tuesday, October 30, 2001, Yankee Stadium hosted game three of the 2001 World Series. President George W. Bush was set out to throw the annual first pitch that not only continued an American tradition, but also represented so much more. As President George W. Bush exited the Yankee dog out, “USA!” was repetitively cheered by the sold out Yankee Stadium consisting of 56,000 emotional fans (Mandel 1). “It was a moment where we could come together as Americans and tell the world that while grievously injured, we were going to pick ourselves up off the ground and continue living our lives” (Mandel 1). President Bush later quoted “United we stand. We stand together in the face of this threat. We will play baseball in the midst of the beginning of this war. No matter what the threat may be to us, the United States will stand strong and never be intimidated.” Between the stirring emotions of the crowd, the strongly worded quote from our leader at the time, and by the game of baseball, America had set out to unit embracing