Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball.
—Jacques Barzun

Is that still true? I don’t think so. I’ve said elsewhere that it’s football you have to understand to get Americans, even if Jeremy might feel otherwise. When George Carlin did his famous number on football vs baseball, he was not only pointing out the differences between a farmer’s pastime and an allegory for war, he was explaining the evolution of America over the last 100 years. We have become a more precise, more aggressive people. We have lost our sense of nuance.

But whether it’s football or baseball that defines us, we can still learn a bit about ourselves through inspection. Our heroes have fallen mightily, so many revealed as juicers that it is no longer a surprise to hear the latest confession. The atmosphere clearly encouraged the use of steroids through a “don’t ask, don’t tell” attitude, and we, the fans, have been largely willing to just give everyone a pass.

The price of a night at the ballgame is now beyond the reach of your average working-class family, and the stadiums themselves – built at great taxpayer expense – have been neatly divided into class-oriented strata. Customers are more apt to buy a season package from their TV provider than season tickets, and this is partly because today’s fan is likely more driven by his fantasy league than by his hometown team. The new dream is to be not Derek Jeter, but George Steinbrenner. As Robert Lipsyte says, the ballplayers themselves have become mere monopoly pieces. “Teddy Roosevelt’s hero, ‘the man who is actually in the arena,’ has been replaced with the Gekko bonus baby who owns the arena.”

Fantasy leagues define our country today. Isn’t the lesson of America that it is better to own than to work?