Making the World Safe for Baseball :: Sports History Athletics Essays

Making the World Safe for Baseball The national pastime, organized baseball’s self-proclaimed moniker, represented an important American institution as the Great War began to enmesh Europe. The game’s association with democracy bred a poignant sense of patriotism among the players, fans, and other baseball aficionados as the conflict slowly ensnared the United States. Around the country, reporters emphasized baseball’s important role in the impending European conflict: in the New York Times, Benjamin DeCasseres wrote, â€Å"the world ought to be made safe for baseball,† since, as long as baseball embodied American democracy, â€Å"the Kaisers and the Trotskys would strike out.†[1] Accordingly, notes Richard Crepeau, the game â€Å"took its role in the First World War quite seriously,† identifying itself as the â€Å"game of democracy.†[2] In his analysis, Crepeau stresses the sport’s willingness to accept the Great War and the government’s mobilizatio n efforts as both â€Å"good for America†¦and good for baseball.†[3] Harold Seymour, on the other hand, claims organized baseball demanded special favors and considerations from the government while maintaining an air of allegiance and patriotism.[4] An examination of Baseball Magazine, a premier baseball publication during this period, validates the latter argument, revealing the sport’s simultaneous claims of support for and exemption from the war effort. Up until President Woodrow Wilson’s declaration of war, organized baseball remained rather detached from the European situation. Despite the war’s emerging influence on the affairs of the country, the World Series of 1915, columnist F.C. Lane reported, represented a week in which the â€Å"united American people† could â€Å"forget the war†¦and talk and eat and dream of baseball and who will win the all important series.†[5] As the baseball season reopened the following April, the sport possessed an aloofness not uncommon throughout the rest of American society. An interview with Detroit Tigers star Ty Cobb demonstrates this position. Refusing to take sides in the European conflict while placing blame for belligerency on the continent’s imperial heritage, Cobb states, â€Å"No, I haven’t any decided notions in favor of either side. I believe the conflict was inevitable, according to the system followed by both parties in Europe.†[6] The editors of the publication seemed to agree with such detachment by proclaiming a moral supremacy reminiscent of President Wilson’s own rhetoric. While Europe impeded civilization’s progress, according to one columnist, America’s growing acceptance of Sunday baseball represented a most telling and â€Å"hopeful sign of that progress.