pic – kurt squire
Here’s an attempt at articulating this project’s methodology, such as it is, what I’ve learned along the way and how I see the final season playing out.
In his wonderful book, Baseball – A History of America’s Favorite Game, George Vecsey wrote that the game “survives on its oral traditions. What else do you do at the ballpark but chatter for two or three or four hours?”
“In rural America, people sat on their front porches and whittled with their knives and talked to each other. In ballparks, fans and players and commentators still have time to play with words and ideas and memories.”
When I was starting the project, I initially – and naively – thought I could tap into that oral tradition and use conversations during a game to find what people thought about everything from the day’s starting pitchers to the direction of American foreign policy. Well, that didn’t work for a number of reasons.
No-one really wants to be tied to something they might say, especially about the state of the country, between innings after a couple of beers. Also, have you noticed that ballparks these days are just too damn loud?
So i found the best way to bridge the gap was just to “talk about what we’d talk about” in the subsequent Q&A, which would be online.
States of Play 