Archer W.: Why is baseball called “America’s pastime”?
Jerry Brewer: Baseball is America’s pastime because it is really old and there are few things American that are that old, in the big scope of things. When baseball was invented in the mid 1800s, we didn’t have a lot of things that were uniquely us, and baseball—which is derived from a couple of English games, rounders and cricket—became something that we really attached ourselves to. And throughout American history baseball has played this role as this sporting passion that’s been a national unifier. You can go back to Civil War times, and there were moments when baseball actually brought both sides together, even though they were at war.
You can take it all the way to after September 11th, 2001, how baseball really helped the nation heal after the terrorist attacks. And—because football has become such a passion of American sports fans, baseball doesn’t necessarily hold the place in American culture that it used to be—but historically, nothing comes close to the impact baseball has had in our lives in terms of sports.
Archer W.: Thank you, Jerry. That was Jerry Brewer from The Washington Post.
