{"id":312,"date":"2009-03-27T15:06:19","date_gmt":"2009-03-27T19:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/dos\/?p=312"},"modified":"2009-05-04T10:07:10","modified_gmt":"2009-05-04T14:07:10","slug":"coffee-conversation-march-27","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/dos\/2009\/03\/27\/coffee-conversation-march-27\/","title":{"rendered":"Coffee & Conversation: March 27, 2009"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yipes! Is Baseball a Sport?<\/abbr><\/h1>\n

\"\"I see great things in baseball. It\u2019s our game\u2013the American game. It will take our people out of doors, fill them with oxygen, give them a larger physical stoicism. Tend to relieve us from being a nervous, dyspeptic set. Repair these losses, and be a blessing to us.<\/em><\/p>\n

Conventional wisdom attributes that statement to Walt Whitman<\/p>\n

In nine days we start it all over again. With a new season coming soon, let\u2019s talk about baseball.<\/p>\n

WARNING \u2013 CONTINUED READING MAY RAISE YOUR IRE.<\/p>\n

Sport is important to many of our lives and the society.\u00a0 I watch baseball and have played many a game. Despite my involvement with baseball, I find it uninspiring.\u00a0 Maybe it\u2019s just a marketing thing, but when I consider great athletic moments and great athletes, baseball and baseball players tend to come up short on my lists. I appreciate baseball for all its newsworthiness and drama, but I wonder if baseball should be called a sport. (That\u2019s right I\u2019m the dude who said it!)\u00a0 I\u2019m trying to figure out why people, especially Americans, think baseball is \u201call that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Is a contest of groups of individuals really a team sport? If baseball is the American game, what does it say about America and Americans? Stuck in the past? Boring? Chokes? Cheaters? Individualistic to a fault? Obsessive? Money for nothing? Advanced? International? Smart? Poetic? Inspired?<\/p>\n

If sport is about skillful physical activity, organization, and lots of rules, then baseball is all about it.\u00a0 If sport is about competitive activity between te\"\"<\/a>ams with great and inspiring individual and group champions, then baseball might, at best, be akin to a great novel.\u00a0 Why is baseball the great American game, sport, or pastime?<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll see you this afternoon in the Howard Thurman Center to talk about baseball.\u00a0 Do we really dig this game or is it time to go find a real sport? I\u2019ll bring the coffee and cookies and I am sure you\u2019ll bring the conversation (I might also need my umpire\u2019s mask, too). See you at 3 p.m.<\/p>\n

Peace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yipes! Is Baseball a Sport? I see great things in baseball. It\u2019s our game\u2013the American game. It will take our people out of doors, fill them with oxygen, give them a larger physical stoicism. Tend to relieve us from being a nervous, dyspeptic set. Repair these losses, and be a blessing to us. Conventional wisdom […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1350,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[85],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/dos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/dos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/dos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/dos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1350"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/dos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/dos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":318,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/dos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312\/revisions\/318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/dos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/dos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/dos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}