A Miniature Representation of the World That Displays Our Capabilities as a Species*.
Humans have always been obsessed with displaying their force through the manipulation of physics[1]. More specifically, we have used objects to manifest in the materialized world the strength we have. This essay will explore the invention of the ball, and its impact in human interactions and complex systems, such as economics and politics. As the reader may know, there is a variety of balls around the globe. So, to keep the article grounded, we will focus solely on the baseball.
There is evidence that balls have been around for quite a long time. Broadly speaking, their utility has been rather stable: Sporting events. There are accounts that the Aztecs and Mayans ‘played’ with balls, bouncing them and ‘hooping it’ with the hopes of winning and offering sacrifice to the Gods, implying a religious significance[2]. Further, Spanish conquistadors reported that the Mayans used sporting events to wager lands and slaves, among other goods[3]. During the 1850s, a new sport emerged and it consisted in throwing balls. This sport is now known as baseball.
This ball puts into test the rules of physics. Some players have said that the ball ‘goes upward’ when the pitcher throws it, and it has been proved that it is ‘physically impossible’ to hit a baseball, yet we have witnessed 500-foot home runs. What’s more, baseball has an impactful force in the way we understand economics.
It is documented that baseball is tightly associated to economic theory, as it can reveal a lot about human behavior and its impact in, say, companies[4]. More impressive is the fact that “Baseball was the first industry in which researchers could actually measure the incremental contribution of an individual employee to total company revenue.” (Bruggink, Thomas H. 1993) On top of that, baseball has been a ‘golden bridge’ between cultures, putting together all sorts of people in a diamond field.
Jacques Barzun, a renowned philosopher and baseball fan, remarked, “Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball.” This would imply that baseball is just played by Americans but strikingly, baseball is now constituted by more than 251 players (28.5% of all players) [5] who were born outside the US. These players come from all around the globe: Dominican Republic [6], Canada, Curacao, Lithuania, and from many other countries, including Japan.
Japan and the United States have a long history together, and it is one that includes wars. In 1949, US troops were still in Japan. General Douglas MacArthur was in charge of overseeing the rebuilding efforts from the devastation of World War II. He immediately noticed that there was a lot of resentment towards Americans, and wanted to do something to ease things up. Of course to his mind, the only thing capable of uniting people was ‘America’s Pastime’.
He asked Lefty O’Doul [7], manager of minor league team San Fransisco Seals to play some games in Japan. The Seals’ tour around the country attracted 500,000 people [8], they even managed to get Emperor Hirohito to greet Lefty O’Doul. General MacArthur said O’Doul’s tour was the “greatest example of diplomacy he’d ever seen.”
This ball has crossed the entire world. This ball has made people cry from excitement [9], from sadness [10]; it has been a peace-maker, it has gathered around in one field all nations; this ball has taught us about economics, it has taught us about our humanity. This ball has become America’s Pastime. I dare to say — with some bias — it has become humanity’s sport.
Endnotes
[1] I must confess . . . this essay was written with a ‘nostalgic feeling’, as the baseball season has been suspended indefinitely.
[2] Hosler, Dorothy, et al, say that “Ancient Mesoamerican peoples were processing rubber by 1600 B.C.” and with it they created rubber balls.
[3] See Hosler, Dorothy, et al.
[4] See Bruggink, Thomas H. “National Pastime to Dismal Science: Using Baseball to Illustrate Economic Principles.”
[5] See https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-rosters-feature-251-international-players
[6] Dominican nationals have lead the list since 1995.
[7] O’Doul is one of only three Americans in the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame.
[8] These included 14,000 war orphans.
[9] It made me cry from excitement when the A’s clinched the playoff berth in 2019.
[10] It made my cry from sadness when the A’s lost in the Wild Card game in 2019.
* God, I miss baseball.
Works Cited
Hosler, Dorothy, Sandra L. Burkett, and Michael J. Tarkanian. “Prehistoric Polymers: Rubber Processing in Ancient Mesoamerica.” Science 284, no. 5422 (1999): 1988–991. Accessed March 24, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/2898168.
Fidler, David P. “Introduction: Baseball in the Global Era: Economic, Legal, and Cultural Perspectives.” Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies 8, no. 1 (2000): 1–8. Accessed March 10, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/20644753.
Colclough, William G., Lawrence A. Daellenbach, and Keith R. Sherony. “Estimating the Economic Impact of a Minor League Baseball Stadium.” Managerial and Decision Economics 15, no. 5 (1994): 497–502. Accessed March 10, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/2487998.
Bruggink, Thomas H. “National Pastime to Dismal Science: Using Baseball to Illustrate Economic Principles.” Eastern Economic Journal 19, no. 3 (1993): 275–94. Accessed March 15, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/40325853.
Klein, Alan M. “Culture, Politics, and Baseball in the Dominican Republic.” Latin American Perspectives 22, no. 3 (1995): 111–30. Accessed March 24, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/2634143.
Thompson, Stephen I. Journal of Anthropological Research 47, no. 3 (1991): 362–65. Accessed March 24, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/3630622.
Wisensale, Steven. Smithsonian Magazine. (2018) https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-baseball-strengthened-relationship-between-united-states-japan-180968597/
