The Pastime Past Time: The Uniqueness of Baseball as an American Sport - A Psycho-Biblical Analysis

Year 2016, Volume 4 - Issue 4, 367 - 380, 28.12.2016

Paul Cantz Kalman J. Kaplan Daniel L. Kaplan

Abstract

The essence of what makes baseball unique amongst sporting competitions can be difficult to
articulate. In this paper we suggest that what links baseball and American culture is a shared
reliance, often implicit, on a biblical as opposed to a more Graeco-European way of
appreciating life. Devoid of a cross-cultural perspective, however, baseball’s biblical substrate
is initially difficult to discern, and therefore it is instructive to provide contrast by comparing
the modern game of baseball to Ancient Greek sports and motifs. This might seem like a
curious comparison except for the fact that the Ancient Greeks are credited with inaugurating
the very enterprise of organized athletic competition through the Olympic games, and in so
doing establishing a distinctly Graeco-Roman undercurrent that permeates most other modern
sports, with notable exception, we argue, to the most Hebraic of sports: Baseball.

Keywords

Baseball, Bible, American Culture, Greek Mythology

References

• Bercovitch S (1976). The Puritan origins of the American self. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.