Common Folk Collective

Over the last few years I’ve regained my youthful interest in baseball, this was probably the result of a few seasons of my hometown team, the Brewers, doing well and that I live a long walk, short bike ride from Nationals Park. I’m not sure when this trend went mainstream, as a kid who spent most of his time growing around orthodox Jews my only memory of God and baseball is that Orel Hershiser wrote a book, Out of the Blue, that I read despite the Christian theme and the potential ostracism of my schoolmates.

Though now going to games has become at bit grating as God has taken a more prominent place in the game, a few examples of note. At both Camden Yards and Nationals Park on Sundays during the 7th inning stretch they play “God Bless America” because I don’t believe in God I show my annoyance with the song selection by sitting, which apparently comes with the risk of ejection. The second annoyance is the once a game playing of God Bless the USA by Lee Greenwood because on the top of the vapid patriotism it is the worst form of music, country. The last annoyance though came from a video game series I’ve enjoyed, and purchased, over the last five years and it is one of the few reasons to consider a Playstation 3, MLB 13 The Show. In the Road to the Show Mode you can customize every detail about your player, name, preferred number, batting gloves, location of facial features, even if they were born in the US.* One thing I discovered though is that you cannot choose if your player is a believer. This is evident by the gesture my player “The Gentleman Tony Plush” made after a recent win.

*I’m not sure why birth origin is something you can select, I haven’t seen a part of the game where you deal with immigration or foreign tax issues.