foreign and military policies? Baseball has long engaged in a “national pastime tradeoff,” whereby it must religiously toe the official government or military line, in return for being able to maintain its claim as the national game. In exchange for its good standing as the national pastime, has baseball trapped itself into a blind adherence to U.S. Routinely, patriotism has been conceptualized not as support for the nation’s ideals, but rather as loyalty to official policies. In America’s foreign diplomacy, baseball was often regarded as the nation’s “moral equivalent of war.” And at home, baseball was used to promote patriotism and nationalism.ĤAffiliating itself with true blue Americanism has had its benefits, but perhaps some negative repercussions as well. It took its place in the globalization of the world, even if Americanization was more so the objective. “civilizing missions” launched abroad, either militarily or economically, and sometimes bolstered by the forces of “muscular Christianity.” Baseball was used to sell and export the American way. Baseball was enlisted in America’s imperial quests and it helped colonize other lands, from the Caribbean to Asia to the Pacific. The National Pastime TradeoffģIn America’s efforts to expand its frontiers, it soon looked overseas. military endeavors, in particular, especially the nation’s wars and interventions. It has also sought to equate itself with American masculinity and patriotism, and with U.S. To do so, baseball-and especially major league baseball (MLB)-has tried to associate itself with the values of the American dream.
Since then, the sport has worked hard to maintain that status. While baseball was played in America as far back as the Revolutionary War, it was first designated the “national pastime” in the 1850s. foreign policy has affected baseball, as well.ĢFor more than two centuries, baseball has shown up in surprising ways as America has emerged in the world, and then built itself into an empire. domestic life, our national pastime has also figured prominently in how America has projected itself abroad-in its foreign, military, diplomatic and globalization policies.
1While many have observed baseball’s longstanding resonance with U.S.
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