{"id":180,"date":"2017-03-10T14:53:10","date_gmt":"2017-03-10T19:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/?p=180"},"modified":"2017-03-30T16:27:47","modified_gmt":"2017-03-30T20:27:47","slug":"beisbol-and-apple-pie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/beisbol-and-apple-pie\/","title":{"rendered":"B\u00e9isbol and apple pie"},"content":{"rendered":"

For anthropology professor Stanton Green, baseball\u2019s role in assimilating immigrants into America can be found in a 3\u201d x 5\u201d black and white snapshot. The scene features two young, first-generation Americans: Green\u2019s father, crouched in a catcher\u2019s stance, plays stickball on Manhattan\u2019s Lower East Side, circa 1940, while Green\u2019s mother watches from the sidewalk.<\/p>\n

The photo is at the heart of Green\u2019s research into the anthropology of baseball and his study of the sport\u2019s intersection with American culture. This is no leisurely pastime for Green: He has presented papers at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and given a TED Talk on the topic.<\/p>\n

The subject matter is ever-changing. The players of Europeans heritage\u2014think Lou Gehrig and Hank Greenberg\u2014have given way to Jackie Robinson to today\u2019s influx of Latinos and Asians. Each wave brought baseball to dizzying heights while providing an evolving snapshot of America.<\/p>\n

Baseball \u201chas played a role in many of the historic landmarks of American history,\u201d says Green. He cites Robinson and baseball as playing as big a role in the integration of American society \u201cas any other social institution.\u201d Most Commanders in Chief going back to George Washington played baseball. The first pitch is a presidential staple. The game is \u201cdeeply rooted in the American experience,\u201d says Green.<\/p>\n

Aside from its infusion in the American way of life, the game is also \u201can emotional lever\u201d for many. After all, Green asks, who doesn\u2019t remember their first baseball game? Even the game\u2019s pattern\u2014no clock, long periods of stasis jolted to life by surprise\u2014mimics our day-to-day. A routine ground ball can turn into something else entirely. Just ask Bill Buckner.<\/p>\n

Those who think that Green is basking in patriotic hyperbole might want to buy a plane ticket. Fly over the United States, he says, and you\u2019ll see baseball diamonds dotting the landscape. The game is literally ingrained in the country.<\/p>\n

TOP: The photo of Stanton Green\u2019s father playing stickball in Manhattan in the 1940s<\/em>
\nlies at the center of Green\u2019s research on baseball and U.S. immigrants. Photo courtesy of Stanton Green.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

America\u2019s pastime has helped waves of immigrants assimilate to the U.S.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":66,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"image_focus":"","hide_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-currents"],"thumbnail":"\"\"","catString":"Currents","issue":"Spring 2017","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":625,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180\/revisions\/625"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}