Why Is Baseball Considered A Pastime

Baseball or commonly referred to as Americas pastime, which is just another word for hobby or something that one does to “pass time”. Yet, pastime is such a more romantic word to refer to an activity then the word hobby and that’s how some Americans feel about baseball. Invented in the United States in 1839 and played professionally in 1876, baseball is deeply rooted in America as it was still developing its identity as a nation. Though very central to America, baseball has been introduced all over the world, interestingly enough even to Japan. Baseball was introduced to Japan in the 1870’s, yet it wasn’t until 1934 when Japan began playing baseball professionally. It seems as the United States has no problem sharing its pastime with other
Baseball is so culturally ingrained in to the United States because it has been around nearing two hundred years, which may not sound like a long time, but in reference how long the US has been its own country it’s a large portion of that time period. Baseball by its nature embodies American values such as democracy and the American dream. This symbolism has been noted for many years now even by the New York Times during world war II as they talk about how any boy can grow up playing baseball as a kid and make it to the league with enough determination and grit and can make it big for himself regardless of where he comes from (qtd. Briley 27). It wasn’t really any boy as it was not until Jackie Robinson when African Americans were allowed to play in the MLB. Besides the fact that only white men at the time could really play it was deemed a democratic game because “anyone” could play. Perhaps the reason it is said to be a democratic game is due to the fact that America’s becoming of a true democracy and its growing love of baseball nearly coincided in the 1950’s and
The teams in Japan are owned by companies and are fundamentally just a way to promote their respective businesses. In the United States the team is its own franchise usually owned by a group of people and sometimes just one individual. While in the stands there are “fan clubs” which have different chants for different players on their teams and different chants for differing situations. These clubs are silent when the opposing team is up to bat as they do not want to cheer for them, as the chanting is used as a mood setter to motivate their own team. In the United States it is social but usually not an entire section that you know and are familiar with and there is certainly no uniform chanting that occurs. There are the usually cheers for when your team does well and boos for the other team outside of that there is not much interaction with the players as it is their job to perform with or without the help of the team. This can show how baseball in America is not seen as a collective group effort and there is a lack of connection between the fans and the teams, while in Japan they see it as their duty to support the team as much as possible to help win the game. The amount one is invested in to their team is not too different from the United states as there is a spectrum of how serious you take the winning and losing oy your team in both cultures, but it is interesting to note the differences in how each culture shows