Matt Ranum

The Meaning of Sports

By Michael Mandelbaum

You would expect that someone who makes their living writing about foreign policy would write a book about sports that would not be very captivating and interesting. You would be wrong. Michael Mandelbaum’s “The Meaning of Sports” does just that. Whether you are someone who has already experienced the history of sports and the history of America or if you are someone who is just beginning to, after reading this book you will walk away learning something you didn’t know, remembering something you forgot, but most importantly be able to contribute to any conversation about baseball, football and basketball, and why Americans are so passionate about it.

For example, he begins by explaining that in the nineteenth century, America was an agrarian society, made up of mostly farmers and people who didn’t travel or mingle with people who lived far from them. Farmers worked where they lived, they didn’t follow a clock and times were simple. Baseball recreates the same feeling, as it is played on a field with no time limit and no clock. He best describes this when he suggests that if someone from the nineteenth century were to magically appear here today and watch a baseball game, he would still be able to follow along with out being totally lost by the “progress” of the future. Besides the flashiness of the advertisements and the computerized scoreboards, the game is really just the same as it was. It is timeless.

He goes on to explain how the popularity of football was a product of the industrial revolution and also man’s love and fascination of the art of war. Until he made that analysis, I had never considered how two opposing teams on the field actually do look exactly like two teams going into battle. Furthermore, the comparison of a football coach being like a general on the field in battle now gives new meaning to watching them carry out a play from their play books.

Finally he explains that the popularity of basketball is a result of the post-industrial workplace. Cities were heavily populated and parks and fields were not in ready supply. Young men needed a place to burn off steam and basketball provided that outlet. It could be played indoors in all types of weather with very little equipment; the player, the net and the ball. It also reflects the age of versatility in America; unlike the other two sports every player must be able to play every position. As Mandelbaum writes, “Basketball players move all over the court and every one of them performs each of the basic tasks of the game: passing, shooting, and rebounding the ball.”

This book is chocked full of facts and history, but they are presented in a way that the reader takes a journey thru the ages of American history at the same time as they learn about the parallels in history to baseball, football and basketball. Mandelbaum’s book, “The Meaning of Sports” helps bridge the gap between people who don’t love or understand sports and the people who just can’t live without it. He exposes the roots of each of these games in a way that will definitely make you one of the most popular players during your next round of sports trivia at Hooters. I wonder how many people there will know why the “Dodgers” were called the “Dodgers”.