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A review by 12dejamoo
Why Baseball Matters by Susan Jacoby
informative
slow-paced
3.0
I did like this, but I also struggled with some aspects of it. I will admit I'm not a dedicated baseball fan, but as the daughter of one, I was interested to read this. Jacoby makes some good points in terms of reasoning why she reckons interest in baseball has gone down, as well as debunking some common classist and racist theories. However, I think she is a little hung up on the shortened attention spans of young people. Okay, yes, it's true that attention spans have gone down, and yes, baseball is a game that requires patience, but I also think it's not fair to people who enjoy getting highlights and updates on their phones to dismiss them as 'young people with shit attention spans'. She returns to the point a lot of times, to the extent that you feel she's completely exhausted it.
Furthermore, she complains a lot about proposed rule changes. Okay, again, I'm not someone who watches baseball all the time, or is old enough to have experienced the 'good old days' of baseball, but I also think she's too harsh on ideas to update the game. I don't know enough to judge whether the changes would be good for myself, but I think her habit of simply listing proposed changes and catastrophising that they would each 'change the game' beyond recognition got a little old at times.
She did make so many interesting points when talking about why black people and women tend to be less interested in baseball these days, but these points seem skimmed over when compared to the 'young people on their phones' argument. Also, she has great analysis of youth involvement in sports, but relegates a whole load of this to the conclusion. It doesn't make sense to me to have a lot of your best points shoved at the end.
There is a long section where she looks down upon fantasy baseball (and fantasy sports in general). Again, maybe I'm not a purist, but why shouldn't people hang out to look at statistics and imagine exciting games? Okay, maybe I agree that gambling shouldn't be as big a factor as it is, but she seems to look down upon even those who play fantasy baseball casually. I'm not sure that those who are interested in fantasy but not real-life baseball would suddenly become interested in trips to the ballpark if fantasy baseball vanished.
Overall, I enjoyed a lot of her points, but I also felt that despite her assurances at the beginning that people's rose-tinted baseball pasts never truly existed, she still seems to cling to them. She seemed to catastophise every point. I will give her points for actually offering solutions at the end, though, rather than just present problems.
I guess my final point is that, having read two from this Why X Matters series, I now don't know if I understand what they're supposed to be about. Why the Museum Matters seemed to answer the question posed by the title, but this just mourned the loss of popularity of the once ubiquitous 'American pasttime'.
Actually final final point, because I just remembered this. She bitterly denegrates racism against black people, but then, in her conclusion, when discussing racisim against Japanese people, is less verbose. Reading between the lines, it definitely read like she wasn't in favour of it, but I wasn't entirely sure, and there was one line which read as if she meant it as a joke, like 'look what people might have said, weren't they horrible?' but it felt very tonally different to the surrounding text, and did not feel necessary at all. It was right near the end and really took me by surprise.
Furthermore, she complains a lot about proposed rule changes. Okay, again, I'm not someone who watches baseball all the time, or is old enough to have experienced the 'good old days' of baseball, but I also think she's too harsh on ideas to update the game. I don't know enough to judge whether the changes would be good for myself, but I think her habit of simply listing proposed changes and catastrophising that they would each 'change the game' beyond recognition got a little old at times.
She did make so many interesting points when talking about why black people and women tend to be less interested in baseball these days, but these points seem skimmed over when compared to the 'young people on their phones' argument. Also, she has great analysis of youth involvement in sports, but relegates a whole load of this to the conclusion. It doesn't make sense to me to have a lot of your best points shoved at the end.
There is a long section where she looks down upon fantasy baseball (and fantasy sports in general). Again, maybe I'm not a purist, but why shouldn't people hang out to look at statistics and imagine exciting games? Okay, maybe I agree that gambling shouldn't be as big a factor as it is, but she seems to look down upon even those who play fantasy baseball casually. I'm not sure that those who are interested in fantasy but not real-life baseball would suddenly become interested in trips to the ballpark if fantasy baseball vanished.
Overall, I enjoyed a lot of her points, but I also felt that despite her assurances at the beginning that people's rose-tinted baseball pasts never truly existed, she still seems to cling to them. She seemed to catastophise every point. I will give her points for actually offering solutions at the end, though, rather than just present problems.
I guess my final point is that, having read two from this Why X Matters series, I now don't know if I understand what they're supposed to be about. Why the Museum Matters seemed to answer the question posed by the title, but this just mourned the loss of popularity of the once ubiquitous 'American pasttime'.
Actually final final point, because I just remembered this. She bitterly denegrates racism against black people, but then, in her conclusion, when discussing racisim against Japanese people, is less verbose. Reading between the lines, it definitely read like she wasn't in favour of it, but I wasn't entirely sure, and there was one line which read as if she meant it as a joke, like 'look what people might have said, weren't they horrible?' but it felt very tonally different to the surrounding text, and did not feel necessary at all. It was right near the end and really took me by surprise.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexism, Misogyny, Xenophobia, Racism, Racial slurs, and Classism
Racism/Xenophobia against the Japanese mentioned quite indelicately