April 27, 2005
Poignant Luddites
Between them, both Tom Boswell and George Will sing poignant tunes about what they call the "timeless" rhythms of baseball. Read the two linked columns -- one about the new Washington Nationals, the other about 39-year old Atlanta Braves pitcher Greg Maddux -- and you'll see that these otherwise smart men are living in the past. As I've said before, these guys are "throwbacks to an idyllic agrarian American past that -- as anyone from the Midwest or the Great Plains knows -- never really existed in the first place."
George Calin was right! His hilarious comparison between baseball, our former national pastime, and football -- excerpted below -- "tells us something about ourselves and our values. And maybe how those values have changed over the last 150 years."
In football, the object is for the quarterback, otherwise known as the field general, to be on target with his aerial assault, riddling the defense by hitting his recievers with deadly accuracy in spite of the blitz, even if he has to use the shotgun. With short bullet passes and long bombs, he marches his troops into enemy territory, balancing this aerial assault with a sustained ground attack that punches holes in the forward wall of the enemy's defensive line.
In baseball the object is to go home! And to be safe. "I hope I'll be safe at home!"
Posted by glenn
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