Reflections After The Game
by Wayne Lerner
I’m a big White Sox fan and go to 10 or 12 games a season. I once heard someone say that, if you spend 15 minutes a day being a kid, you’ll stay young forever. If that’s the case, I bank 3+ hours of “kid” time for each game. Once at Sox Park, I’ll talk only about baseball unless it’s a blowout. Then, any subject is fair play. And I like to talk to the fans around me, regardless of their team loyalty.
On the way home, I leave the radio off and, in silence other than the persistent road noise, reflect on the interactions among the fans I meet in the surrounding seats. My seats are located behind the visitors’ dugout so we get a lot of out-of-towners in addition to the regular season ticket holders. This flock of travelers are our adversaries for the length of the game.
The other night, Houston was in town and a fair number of their fans attended the game. This year, Houston is one of the best teams in the majors with a strong fan base. So much so, that it is not surprising their fans would spend considerable sums traveling to Chicago and buying premium seats. After all, this is a World Series-bound team.
In front of me and across the aisle were Spanish-speaking men and women, probably 20 to 30 years old, cheering for the Astros. Behind me sat Sox fans, Hispanic, black and white. Each person wore the jersey of their favorite team’s player, cheering loudly for them when they entered the field. In between bites of the delicious ballpark food, good natured razzing occurred among the various fans.
Regardless of the hat or jersey worn, a palpable camaraderie was present. Love for their team and the sport of baseball was evident. While conversations may have veered to other subjects when there was a lull on the field, they always came back to baseball and the players. Statistics were interspersed with the running commentary on a player’s ability or the team’s prospect for a postseason opportunity to move on towards the World Series.
As it turned out, this game was low scoring as the pitchers matched each other’s performance, pitch for pitch. The home team was losing but not by much. When the opposing team's pitcher left the mound, fans of both teams applauded his performance. In other words, they appreciated good baseball and exhibited one of the key values inherent in sport, good sportsmanship.
Regardless of a person’s race or background, high-fives, handshakes, and claps on the back were common fare for fans of the same team. Color, cultural background, economic status, religion mean nothing when your team is turning defeat into victory. You look for comrades with whom you can share your misery or happiness. When you’re losing, everyone shares the feeling of desperation and shouts words of encouragement to their team. Kinship abounds when you are cheering for the same team.
When the game ends, everyone goes back to their respective city, neighborhood, families and jobs as if the interactions with the others at the park never happened. If they had feelings against a person, a race, or religion, none of that was of importance at the ballpark. All that mattered was the team you were cheering for.
Once the game is over, once you leave your seat and you’re outside the confines of the ballpark, old behaviors and mindsets seep back in. It's as if the attitude of acceptance which was extant during the game never happened. Old biases and prejudices are evident by the commentary one hears as you leave the park. Insults, racial slurs abound as people go back to their “normal” persona. This isn’t true just at Sox Park. I fear it is a national phenomenon.
I had the same experience years ago at Yankee Stadium. Sitting in the bleachers with my son, we spent the afternoon debating the merits of the players and the ball clubs with taxi drivers, policemen, vendors, high school teachers and individuals who were out of work at that moment but still wanted to enjoy the pleasure of attending a baseball game. When the game was over and we were walking to the subway, the conversations around us were different from before, crude, nasty.
It’s unfortunate that this sense of camaraderie and belonging among people of different backgrounds can’t continue outside of sports. To bond with those different from you for the greater good, not just a World Series ring, could be a vehicle for peace in our society.
This is a pipe dream, right? Maybe not.
Divisiveness abounds in our country brought on by strongly held religious, political, cultural and economic beliefs. People are thrown into categories which lead to partisan thoughts and behavior. We’ve seen unfortunate examples of that in the United States, most recently the January 6th attack on the Capitol, and throughout history. Can sports “de-categorize” individuals so that their interest in the outcome of the game, the election, the war reflects the good of the enterprise, not the destruction of their opponent?
This is a naive dream and one based on observations at a baseball game, of all things. To become a reality, there would have to be societal acceptance that the values embedded in sports (integrity, respect, responsibility, sportsmanship, leadership) are the foundation from which acceptable social behavior was viewed.
Who am I kidding with this unrealistic idea?
On the other hand, the next time you go to the ball game, look around, see who is interacting with whom, who do you high-five, who do you kid with and who kids with you? Who engages in the spirit of “fan rituals” at the game. These are the rituals that help us lose ourselves in the game and, for a few hours, transcend the societal constraints and pressures we live with on a daily basis.*
No, I’m not on drugs. I didn’t have an epiphany recently.
I just wish.
If only….if only
*Thanks to Rev. Darrell Jones for his insightful comments on the first draft and the reflections on the importance of rituals in our everyday life.