The Business of Baseball
The interseting thing to note of this current administration is the amount of attention they pay to professional sporting in the US. I understand that between the mlb, nba, nfl, and to not as much of an extent, the nhl and mls, there are billions of dollars thrown to and fro to big business and lobbyists in washington to recieve assurance on biased taxing and revenue streaming. This is a two way street however, for if it wasnt for the size of sports in this country, there would be alot more people paying attention to the ineptitude of the current government, and not just the white house, I mean the house senate and the local and state levels.
But in any case the age in which we live is an interesting time, because many of our national and international stances can be seen in the sporting events we take place in. There is a great deal of pride for our country in these events, and in some cases we rally around our sporting heros to such an extent that the country will project our problems on the event, and we then place all of our hopes and dreams upon them. See the 1980 US Hockey team, The 1972 US olympic basketball team, the world cup for generations of different countries and issues.
But the main thing to realize is that the athlete that competes in these events, we assume, is partaking in the sport for competition, love of the sport, sometimes money, and the overall want to be a winner. They are not at their level because of politics, nepotism maybe, but not politics.
And this leads me to the issue at hand. Congress in the past week have been arguing over the approval process of the Cuban national baseball team competing in the upcoming world baseball classic coming in march.
Now we must know that many players in the major leagues are of cuban descent, and will not be able to compete on their countries team, beacause they have defected to the US or, more recently to another carribean or south american country. Also the cuban team will be collecting revenue from the competition, which may directly violate the current embargo the US has had on Cuba for the last 48 years.
Now I dont agree with Castros views in any way shape or form, but we must realize who else is competing in this competiton, China, Venezuela,South Africa. We all know that the US has had major diplomatic issues with all these countries over the years. Communist China which has just had a reenactment of the Tienemman Square Massacre last week, Venezuela which has threatened oil gouging and has had shady dealing in their fair democratic style elections, and South Africa in appartheid.
These are just a few examples of the recent political head butting events that the US has had with these countries. Should they not be able to put thier major leaguers and national players on the field, should they not collect revenue from the competition, should the US bow out of the competition?
The answer in my humble opinion is no. This is a sport. Some people call it a game. Some call it our past-time. American as apple pie, but played the world over. We must embrace these athletes and let them compete. Forget the fact that they may be used as propaganda, and remember that baseball is propaganda. The propoganda of childhood dreams to step out onto the field with the sun shining down and follow the crack of the bat into a diving catch of ecstasy. A time where the mind is relegated to pure instinct and reaction, not political hubub and policy pushing.
But in any case the age in which we live is an interesting time, because many of our national and international stances can be seen in the sporting events we take place in. There is a great deal of pride for our country in these events, and in some cases we rally around our sporting heros to such an extent that the country will project our problems on the event, and we then place all of our hopes and dreams upon them. See the 1980 US Hockey team, The 1972 US olympic basketball team, the world cup for generations of different countries and issues.
But the main thing to realize is that the athlete that competes in these events, we assume, is partaking in the sport for competition, love of the sport, sometimes money, and the overall want to be a winner. They are not at their level because of politics, nepotism maybe, but not politics.
And this leads me to the issue at hand. Congress in the past week have been arguing over the approval process of the Cuban national baseball team competing in the upcoming world baseball classic coming in march.
Now we must know that many players in the major leagues are of cuban descent, and will not be able to compete on their countries team, beacause they have defected to the US or, more recently to another carribean or south american country. Also the cuban team will be collecting revenue from the competition, which may directly violate the current embargo the US has had on Cuba for the last 48 years.
Now I dont agree with Castros views in any way shape or form, but we must realize who else is competing in this competiton, China, Venezuela,South Africa. We all know that the US has had major diplomatic issues with all these countries over the years. Communist China which has just had a reenactment of the Tienemman Square Massacre last week, Venezuela which has threatened oil gouging and has had shady dealing in their fair democratic style elections, and South Africa in appartheid.
These are just a few examples of the recent political head butting events that the US has had with these countries. Should they not be able to put thier major leaguers and national players on the field, should they not collect revenue from the competition, should the US bow out of the competition?
The answer in my humble opinion is no. This is a sport. Some people call it a game. Some call it our past-time. American as apple pie, but played the world over. We must embrace these athletes and let them compete. Forget the fact that they may be used as propaganda, and remember that baseball is propaganda. The propoganda of childhood dreams to step out onto the field with the sun shining down and follow the crack of the bat into a diving catch of ecstasy. A time where the mind is relegated to pure instinct and reaction, not political hubub and policy pushing.
posted by brazenindustriousness @ 12/12/2005 10:30:00 AM
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