So What is Baseball?
Baseball was a kind of secular church that reached into every class and religion and bound us together in common concerns, loyalties, rituals, enthusiasms, and antagonisms. Baseball made me understand what patriotism was about, at its best. (Philip Roth, 77)
Likewise, Mandelbaum, and plenty of others, compare baseball to a religion - an institution that often governed life before the rise of modern societies. In this quote, Philip Roth makes the case very clearly, arguing that "Baseball was a kind of secular church that reached into every class and religion and bound us together in common concerns, loyalties, rituals, enthusiasms, and antagonisms. Baseball made me understand what patriotism was about, at its best" (77). Like religion, which helps people create meaning in their lives, the sport of baseball provides structure, community and shared values. Importantly, Roth extends his argument to include the nation as well, noting that "baseball made me understand what patriotism was about."