There’s Always Baseball

James Hohmann: “With so many reasons to worry that the center may not hold in American life, baseball steps into the breach. If you’re ever losing faith in this country, go to a game. It may cure you. The national pastime reminds us that there’s nothing wrong with America that can’t be fixed by what’s right about America. Our persistence. Our diversity. Our ability to deliver in the clutch. ‘Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball, the rules, and reality of the game,’ the French cultural historian Jacques Barzun said in 1954.”