I bet you think this is going to be about raw diamonds. No. Cognacs (pictured) or magnificent canaries? Pinks or blues. No and no. I'd like to think you know me well enough to know that I am just not that predictable.
I just have the World Series on my mind. And the election. And you'll just have to read on to see how the two connect.
Baseball and Democracy
I moved to Atlanta when they made it to the World Series the first time. The happiness here was palpable. And I decided to study baseball. All the elegant nuances of this slow, structured game. Baseball is more of a religion and there's no shortage of words on the subject and I don't feel like i should add to it. But every now and then you read something definitive on a subject and that is my gift here to you: an excerpt from Richard Greenberg's play Take Me Out.
"I have come (with no little excitement) to understand that baseball is a perfect metaphor for hope in a democratic society. It has to do with the rules of play. It has to do with the mode of enforcement of these rules. It has to do with certain nuances and grace notes of the game.
First, it's the remarkable symmetry of everything. All those threes and multiples of threes -calling attention to- virtually making a fetish of the game's noble equality. Equality, that is of opportunity. Everyone is given exactly the same chance. And the opportunity to exercise that chance at his own pace. There's none of the scurry, none of that relentlessness that marks other games... basketball, football or hockey. I've never watched basketball, football or hockey, but I'm sure I wouldn't like them. Or maybe I would but it wouldn't be the same.
What I mean is, in baseball there's no clock. What could be more generous than to give everyone all these opportunities and the time to seize them in as well? And with each turn at the plate, there's the possibility of turning the situation to your favor. Down to the very last try.
And then, to insure that everything remains fair, justices are ranged around the park to witness and assess the play. And if the justice errs, an appeal can be made. It's invariably turned down, but that's part of what make the metaphor so right. Because even in the most well meant systems, error is inevitable. Even with the fairest of paradigms, unfairness will creep in.
And baseball is better than democracy -or at least democracy as it's practiced in this country- because unlike democracy, baseball acknowledges loss. While conservatives tell you, "leave things alone and no one will lose," and liberals tell you "interfere a lot and no one will lose," baseball says, "Someone will lose." Not only says it -insists upon it! So that baseball achieves the tragic vision that democracy evades. Evades and embodies. Democracy is lovely, but baseball's more mature."
Now wasn't that a nice read?
