America and Baseball

Milwaukee's Miller Park

I thought this article about baseball, patriotism and the American experience was on the mark. It comes from Tim Stanley, a Brit writing for the Telegraph. He recently experienced his first baseball game and here, he writes about what it was like to hear the National Anthem belted out in the enormous stadium.

I have a rule on these occasions to stand but not sing or put my hand to my chest. I am an Englishman and my loyalty is to Her Majesty (“My country right or wrong, my mother drunk or sober”). So, I can’t in good faith join in. But I’m always inspired by the earnest love that ordinary Americans show for their country. I envy it. Nationalism in the UK is a dirty word (largely because it’s been sullied by racists), so instead we have a soft patriotism that prefers to keep itself to itself. For us, love of country is probably best expressed by a Sunday afternoon walk across the Surrey Downs. It’s a half remembered school hymn about vowing something to someone-or-other, or a fevered argument about the best way to make a cup of tea. English patriotism is about as fulfilling as a Greggs pasty.