The Only Real Game in the World: A Symbol of American Patriotism

In ancient times there was a game played in Egypt that included hitting a ball with a stick. The game appeared in different places in different variations through the centuries until sometime in the 1500's the first documented game of "cricket" was played in southern England. Another variant that appeared during the Tudor dynasty was called "rounders," where the players ran around four bases to score rather than back and forth as in cricket.

In America, a game similar to rounders became popular in the early 19th century. It was sometimes known as "townball" or "base." In New York City, a book seller and volunteer fireman named Alexander Cartwright, wrote a rule book and organized the New York Knickerbocker Base Ball Club. At Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey on June 19, 1846, Cartwright and the Knickerbockers lost to the New York Nine 21-1 in the first ever official game of baseball.

Baseball grew with the country. As the nation expanded baseball teams sprung up in many cities and by 1858 the National Association of Base Ball Players became the first amateur baseball league. During the Civil War baseball tournaments between regiments were popular.

In 1869 the Cincinnati Red Stockings became the first professionally paid baseball team, took on all comers and finished their first season with a perfect 65-0 record. At a time when America's industrial might was beginning to propel the United States into the envy of the world, baseball's popularity also prospered and in 1871, the National Association became the first professional baseball league.

During the westward expansion of this era came wild western towns, many founded on gold or silver strikes. Almost immediately gamblers and saloon keepers would arrive bringing with them gunslingers, prostitutes and trouble. Townspeople wanting a decent place to live would then elect a marshal or sheriff to maintain law and order, and eventually secure, thriving communities with businesses, schools, churches, and law-abiding citizens would flourish.

Meanwhile in the northeast, the National Association's original nine teams expanded to 13 by 1875, but gamblers and the sale of liquor at the games kept people away, and by 1876 the National League was founded with the teams owned by businessmen rather than the players, and rules of conduct established to police the game. Baseball was again safe for family entertainment. While the Indian wars were being fought on the western frontier, easterners from Chicago to Boston spent leisurely summer afternoons watching their favorite teams play.

In 1900 an upstart new league, the American, was founded amid much criticism from National League owners and purists. But the American League stuck and by 1903 had challenged the Nationals to a playoff to determine a national champion. The World Series was born and baseball had become America's National Pastime.

Baseball has had its share of colorful figures. In the 1880's a brash, often drunk, bandy-legged speedster named Billy Sunday, playing for the Chicago White Sox, became the first man to run the bases in under fourteen seconds. One night after a drinking spree he stumbled into the Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago, gave his life to Christ, and would give up baseball to become the most celebrated evangelist in the United States for the next forty years.

There was Big Ed Delahunty, who in the 1890's became the first player to hit four homeruns in a single game. All four were inside the park homers. One night he got drunk, walked off a bridge, fell into a river and drowned. There was Rube Waddell, a southpaw who set the standard for flakiness by running out of the ball park in the middle of an inning he was pitching to watch a fire truck go by. There was Jimmy Foxx, known as "the beast" because he hit the ball so hard, Ted Williams, the "Splendid Splinter," Mickey Mantle, the "Sweet Switcheroo," and "Mr. October," Reggie Jackson, one of the greatest clutch hitters of all time.

And how about the greatest misnomer of all, Frank "Home Run" Baker, who hit twelve in 1913. Baker earned his nickname in the 1911 World Series when he hit two homeruns in consecutive games off two of the best pitchers of the day, Rube Marquard and Christy Matthewson, while leading his Philadelphia Athletics to a 4 games to 2 victory over the New York Giants. Baker unfortunately played at a time known as the "dead-ball" era when the balls weren't wound as tight, were without cork centers and didn't travel near as far. Had he come along ten years later he might have rivaled Babe Ruth.

George Herman "Babe" Ruth was perhaps the most well known and the greatest ballplayer of all time. He started as a pitcher for Boston, but when traded to the Yankees he was placed in the outfield and singlehandedly transformed baseball from dead-ball era strategies of singles, sacrifice bunts and stolen bases into heroic home run derbies with monster shots that he routinely hit over the bleachers and clear out of stadiums.

Perhaps the draw of baseball is that while the game has grown with America, it also embodies all that is good about America. It has intense team rivalries, but the focus is on the head-to-head duels between two warriors, the pitcher and the batter. It's a picture of the pioneer spirit that went into the wilderness unafraid to face a worthy foe. Playing the Star Spangled Banner before the game became one of baseball's first traditions. The game is Americana itself; hotdogs, apple pie, mom and patriotism.

In 1918, Christy Matthewson, who invented the screwball and is arguably the greatest pitcher of all time, left baseball to serve his country in World War I. In a training accident he was gassed, developed tuberculosis, and died in 1925 at the age of 45. Many more players, including "Joltin'" Joe DiMaggio, gave up years of prime playing time to fight for freedom in World War II. Others served in Korea and Vietnam. Ted Williams, the last .400 hitter in baseball, gave up five years of his career to serve in both World War II and Korea.

Baseball led the way in civil rights. Long before Rosa Parks or the Civil Rights Act of 1964, baseball took a young black ballplayer by the name of Jackie Robinson and became the first major sport in America to integrate.

Baseball is a drama that has touched the heart strings of millions. There were no dry eyes in Yankee stadium on the day in 1939 when Lou Gehrig said farewell. Suffering from amiotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the disease that would forever after bear his name, Gehrig very shyly spoke to the crowd. "Some people say that I've been given a bad break, but today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth."

When he died two years later, Gary Cooper played the part of Lou Gehrig in Pride of the Yankees. A young teenage ballplayer saw the movie and from then on had only one desire, to play for the Yankees. He got his chance and in 1966 at the end of his career, Bobby Richardson had his own day at Yankee stadium where he finished his comments with, "To God be the glory."

Baseball's defining patriotic moment came on April 25, 1976 at Chavez Ravine in Los Angeles, California. The Dodgers were playing the Chicago Cubs. In the middle of the game with the Dodgers at bat, two Iranian Muslim "students" climbed over the outfield fence and ran into left-centerfield. They pulled out an American flag, doused it with lighter fluid, and tried to light it on fire. When he realized what was happening, Cubs centerfielder, Rick Monday, came racing in from his position, scooped up the flag and rescued it. As he ran toward the third base dugout, Dodger third base coach, Tommy Lasorda, charged like a raging bull to the outfield giving the two Iranians a cussing like they had never heard before and held them until security arrived to escort them out of the stadium. The fans stood and began applauding, and somewhere spontaneously it started, and then broke out around the stadium, and in a moment the entire crowd was singing God Bless America.

Rick Monday was so popular in Los Angeles that the team traded for him at the end of the season and he finished his career playing for the Dodgers. In a 2006 interview a reporter asked him if it was upsetting to him after playing 19 seasons in the Major Leagues that the only thing he is remembered for is rescuing the flag. Monday replied, "If that's all you're known for, it's not a bad thing. I think it solidifies the thought process of hundreds of thousands of people that represented this country in fine fashion. Many of them lost their lives."

Rick Monday spoke for all true patriots who love America, who have served, and who have given their lives for their country. Monday was not only a fine representative of the Great American National Pastime, he is one of those who have served America in fine fashion, and is a true American patriot.

And baseball is still the greatest game, or as Babe Ruth once said, "the only real game, I think, in the world...."