Negro Leagues

             Passing beyond cliche to near triteness, baseball has long been described as "the national pasttime", and "America's game." These appellations are, of course, intended to be complimentary, even self-congratulatory. But the applause rings hollow when one considers the context in which the comments were made; the acclaims turn to bitter irony when the term "America's game" is examined in less flattering light.
             For indeed, baseball is America's game. It was invented here, flourished here, and has been exported all around the world. It is America's oldest and most important professional sport. It is supposed to reflect American values such as fairness, honesty, and democracy. As a national phenomenon, baseball has long served to mirror cultural currents and national attitudes. And from its inception, baseball's racial attitudes have mirrored those of society. To understand the history of race relations in "America's game" is to better understand the history of race in America. Baseball was not America's only game.
             Following the rules and principles created by Alexander Joy Cartwright, the first official game of baseball was played on June 19, 1846; the upstart New York Nine soundly defeated the established Knickerbocker Base Ball Club 23-1 in four innings. (For those of you who still hew to the completely false Abner Doubleday story, my apologies.) The phrase "Manifest Destiny" was first used in Congress that year. A month before the first game, on May 11, war was declared against Mexico. Ether was used for the first time in dentistry. And with the ratification of the Oregon Agreement, tensions between Great Britain and the United States were finally relieved, as the 49th parallel was accepted as the boundary between the U.S. and Canada westward from the Rocky Mountains to Puget Sound. Slavery was entrenched as the law of the land, but thousands of African Americans found their way north, to freedom, most via the Underground Rail...

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Negro Leagues . (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 08:58, March 28, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/62643.html