Baseball & Liberty

Baseball, it has been said, holds the key to the American character. The Grand Old Game embodies communitarian and individualist impulses that made the country itself grand. Each player does good for this team by doing well for himself.

All nations, though, as wily old Ben Franklin himself warned, eventually succumb to tyranny. Nowadays, wealthy baseball team owners enlist the State to dragoon taxpayers into paying for their stadiums--and, in a mind-boggling display of chutzpah, expect hosannas for picking up the short end of their own tab!

Not so long ago, baseball could still lay claim to its exalted status. Natural grass, quirky stadiums (not the cookie-cutter monstrosities of today), and the pitcher's place in the batting order ensured the game's integrity and continuity with the past.

Not so long ago, undeclared war and diminishing civil liberties still sparked controversy and dissent. As goes baseball, alas, so goes the cause of American liberty.