Sport in the US is remarkably popular. Across the nation, schools have incorporated sport into their curricula. Additionally, thousands of Americans engage in sport professionally. Sport is also a multi-billion dollar industry that accounts for a significant portion of American productivity. Baseball, football and basketball are among the most popular sports in the country. Primarily, these sports serve as platforms for entertainment, engagement and employment. However, an examination of their history and current standing in the US shows that these sports serve a symbolic purpose. The purpose of the paper is to highlight the symbolic role that the sports play. It is hoped that the paper will make clear that America’s attachment to the three sports is rooted in the fact that the sports reflect the issues about which the American people are most passionate.
Thesis
Despite the differences in their individual rules and formats, baseball, football and basketball represent America’s deep and rich history, the values that the nation cherishes, and the country’s obsessive attachment to capitalist ideals.
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Significance
The paper is hugely significant. In addition to tracking the development of sport in the US, the paper also underscores the critical role that sport plays in the country. As it does this, it allows readers to understand why the US has invested heavily in sport. Additionally, the paper challenges the US to maintain its commitment to sport by making it clear that basketball, baseball and football are key components of America’s history.
Support Paragraphs
Reflection of America’s history
While they were developed at different times and under varying circumstances, the three sports depict America’s rich, complex and often controversial history.
Even in the face of economic downturns, political tragedies and wars, the US commitment to the three sports has been unwavering. In fact, since they were first introduced in the country, these sports have only become more popular and gained mainstream acceptance. In essence, the state of these sports today symbolizes the struggles that the nation has endured and the successes that it has accomplished.
The growth of various leagues of such sports as baseball captures the turbulences and milestones that the US has encountered in its quest to integrate sport into its fabric.
There are hundreds of different players from different generations whose names are synonymous with the respective games that they played. These players represent the different stages of America’s historical development and the critical role that sport has played in fueling the nation’s progress.
The three sports are a symbol for the reforms that the American education system has adopted and the changes that it has undergone as a result. The system has evolved from being overly focused on academic excellence to incorporating sport into the learning process.
The sports represent America’s historical struggles with ensuring inequality. Despite the gains that the nation has made, basketball, football and baseball are essentially male pursuits with women being severely underrepresented.
“Wars and economic downturns only temporarily set back steady gains in attendance at all levels of the game” (Rader, 2004, p. 161).
“Commentators as different as Mark Twain, Morris Raphael Cohen, and Jacques Barzun agreed with the fans in the bleachers that baseball was an expression of a distinctively American culture” (Guttman, 1988, p. 51).
Lecture 8
Symbols of American Values
The three sports depict the values and interests that the American people have historically upheld and continue to define the American way of life.
Basketball, baseball and football represent America’s tremendous resilience and relentless pursuit of excellence. The dedication that teams display and the loyalty that the fans demonstrate even when their teams lose show that Americans are immensely resilient and tough.
The three sports suggest that Americans cherish drama, glamor and celebrity. The sportspeople involved in the sports are celebrated and revered. They compete with Hollywood celebrities for attention and media coverage.
By closely examining the history and the current status of the three sports, it becomes evident that Americans cherish success. The teams participating in the sports strive to win and their fans are equally desperate in their desire for victory.
While they are not necessarily popular outside the US, the three sports are deeply valued by Americans. It can therefore be said that they represent American pride and nationalism.
Lecture 9
“In Europe, baseball has made limited inroads only in Holland and Italy, remaining completely esoteric to the rest of the Continent” (Markovitz & Hellerman, 2014, p. 83).
Guttman (1988)
Sports as Representative of Rivalry and Competition
Intense competition and fierce rivalry are vital aspects of basketball, baseball and football.
Teams go extreme lengths to win, including intense training, spending huge amounts on the best players and building dedicated fan bases.
College teams with limited funding and poor performance records envy those that are better funded and post better performance.
The broadcasting of games and the tussle for visibility underscore the tremendous rivalry and competition that underlie the three sports. Therefore, an argument can be made that the three sports shed light on America’s obsession with dominance. This obsession can be seen in how the nation operates domestically and on the global stage.
While the three sports encourage team spirit and collaboration, they also place immense focus on individual achievement. This highlights America’s culture of individualism and autonomy.
The various scandals that have been reported over the years in the three sports show the desperate quest for success and the emphasis that the nation places on winning even when it occurs at the expense of integrity and sportsmanship.
“the emotional content and normative expression of college football rivalries in the United States are less defined by the respective teams’ actual athletic results in the competition but rather by their institutions’ perceived prestige as well as their social and cultural capital encapsulated by their academic ranking” (Markovits, Shipan & Victor, 2017, p. 1).
Lecture 9
Sports and Politics
Football, baseball and basketball summarize the politics of the United States.
That there are competing teams participating in the three sports shows how the US political process is structured.
Such sports as basketball are generally understood to be popular with liberals and progressives.
Today, sport is being used to promote political agendas. For example, there have been numerous instances where African American football players leverage their influence to push for equality and an end to unjust police brutality against the black community.
The US is using sport as a diplomatic tool on the global stage to push for the adoption of its values and respect for fundamental liberties. For instance, the NBA has become embroiled in the protests that have gripped Hong Kong for months. NBA’s involvement points to American interventionism in global affairs.
Guttman (1988)
Markovitz & Hellerman (2014)
Li (2019)
Gorn & Goldstein (1993)
Sports and Capitalism
Football, basketball and baseball serve as symbols of the American capitalist economic model.
The massive infrastructure projects developed for the three sports underscore America’s emphasis on economic growth and global dominance.
The inequalities in the pay offered to players in the various sports mirror the gross economic and social inequalities that the capitalist system has caused.
While progress is being made, minorities such as African Americans are grossly under-represented in some of the sports. This situation reflects the country’s history of racism and discrimination.
How colleges fail to pay athletes despite the massive revenues that they bring in signifies the exploitation that poor and powerless American workers endure in the hands of powerful corporations.
“Unpaid athletes earning huge revenues for their schools…had been a given since the Harvard-Yale football contests” ((Markovitz & Hellerman, 2014, p. 89).
Lecture 12
Counter-argument
Perhaps basketball, baseball and football are mere sports which serve no symbolic purpose and should therefore not be regarded as special.
These sports are gaining greater acceptance and adoption across the world, suggesting that they are not necessarily American and are not symbolic.
The development of the three sports does not seem deliberate. Random events and circumstances seem to have set the stage for the development process. Therefore, it is difficult and somewhat pretentious to suppose that these sports serve some symbolic purpose.
Arguing that the three sports symbolize America essentially reduces the country’s complex energies, interests and systems to overly simplistic representations.
Rebuttal
While it may be true that the US has exported the three sports to the world, these sports remain uniquely American. They are rich with the country’s history and are an accurate representation of America’s fears, visions and failures.
Conclusion
The US is an exceptional nation. Its special and exceptional nature can be seen in football, baseball and basketball. In addition to capturing the country’s history, these sports also symbolize America’s capitalist system, politics and values. Given the importance of these sports, the nation should spare no effort in promoting and exporting the sports.
References
Gorn, E., & Goldstein, W. (1993). A brief history of American sports . Toronto: Harper Collins Canada.
Guttman, A. (1988). A whole new ball game. An interpretation of American sports. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.
Li, A. J. (2019). With polarising perspectives on the NBA and Hong Kong protests, both China and the US should show more maturity. SCMP. Retrieved October 26, 2019 from https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3034357/polarising-perspectives-nba-and-hong-kong-protests-both-china-and
Markovits, A. S., & Hellerman, S. L. (2014). Offside: soccer and American exceptionalism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Markovits, A. S., Shipan, R., & Victor, J. (2017). Envy and scorn as primary markers of the pervasive antipathy in college football’s rivalry games: the University of Michigan as a representative microcosm. Sport in Society. doi: 10.1080/17430437.2017.1326758
Rader, B. G. (2004). American sports. From the age of folk games to the age of televised sports. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.
