Consuming American baseball
by nile rodgers
INTRODUCTION
The United States is a consumer based economy whereby the standard of living index derives predominately from the purchase of consumer goods. Based off data retrieved from Federal Reserve Bank, over two-thirds of the entire US economy is consumer expenditures. We can determine by this data that a lot can be derived by disecting what and why American's decide to purchase. Much of American identity and experience comes from decisions made at the checkout counter. The invisible hand of American purchase behavior can be understood as describing what American's find as important to them, what they view as in their best interest, and more or less what it means to be an American. Through the lens of consumption we can use consumer goods to examine how American's self-identify. What will discover is how tropes such as American exceptionalism, manifest destiny, and "the American Dream" are tied to purchasing behavior and acculturation in one product in particular, the game of baseball. Symbols such as that of the American flag are used in media in representation of the sport. By examination you can find nothing more "American" then baseball...but why is this the case?
Known throughout as America’s favorite pastime, images siphoned from the American baseball mythos are used by consumer goods manufacturers and producers of innumerable products in an effort to usurp baseball’s well-established American patriotism and cultural tradition in a variety of ways. Prevailing themes harken a pastoral America, one of rural farm communities and the countryside. Other dominating concepts are those of "American exceptionalism" whereby products tied to baseball are innately superior due to them being "American". One must wonder, however, how baseball became so inherently tied with the American experience. How and why does baseball pull from American canon in the marketing of its related products both direct and indirectly? In essence, how does the consumption of established "baseball goods" acculturate participants into a unique American experience and cultural identity? As I intend to deconstruct within the following pages, we can see from the marketing machine of the 20th century how the sport of American baseball is used to codify Americanism, traits unique to that of the United States and/or its citizens. As we will see, baseball is especially American and "you can be too!", as they would say, by purchasing a pair of Rawling's gloves to play catch with your son, buying some "Big League Chew" flavored gum, or by listening to Jon Fogerty's famous hit-song "Centerfield".
The United States is a consumer based economy whereby the standard of living index derives predominately from the purchase of consumer goods. Based off data retrieved from Federal Reserve Bank, over two-thirds of the entire US economy is consumer expenditures. We can determine by this data that a lot can be derived by disecting what and why American's decide to purchase. Much of American identity and experience comes from decisions made at the checkout counter. The invisible hand of American purchase behavior can be understood as describing what American's find as important to them, what they view as in their best interest, and more or less what it means to be an American. Through the lens of consumption we can use consumer goods to examine how American's self-identify. What will discover is how tropes such as American exceptionalism, manifest destiny, and "the American Dream" are tied to purchasing behavior and acculturation in one product in particular, the game of baseball. Symbols such as that of the American flag are used in media in representation of the sport. By examination you can find nothing more "American" then baseball...but why is this the case?
Known throughout as America’s favorite pastime, images siphoned from the American baseball mythos are used by consumer goods manufacturers and producers of innumerable products in an effort to usurp baseball’s well-established American patriotism and cultural tradition in a variety of ways. Prevailing themes harken a pastoral America, one of rural farm communities and the countryside. Other dominating concepts are those of "American exceptionalism" whereby products tied to baseball are innately superior due to them being "American". One must wonder, however, how baseball became so inherently tied with the American experience. How and why does baseball pull from American canon in the marketing of its related products both direct and indirectly? In essence, how does the consumption of established "baseball goods" acculturate participants into a unique American experience and cultural identity? As I intend to deconstruct within the following pages, we can see from the marketing machine of the 20th century how the sport of American baseball is used to codify Americanism, traits unique to that of the United States and/or its citizens. As we will see, baseball is especially American and "you can be too!", as they would say, by purchasing a pair of Rawling's gloves to play catch with your son, buying some "Big League Chew" flavored gum, or by listening to Jon Fogerty's famous hit-song "Centerfield".
WORKS CITED
"Census Bureau Homepage." Census Bureau Homepage. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Dec. 2013. <http://www.census.gov/>.
"Personal Consumption Expenditures over Gross Domestic Product." St. Louis Federal Reserve. Office of Economic Research, 01 Feb. 2013. Web. 09 Dec. 2013. http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=hh3.