American Baseball, The National Myth And Movie Representations

As the National Ballgame, baseball is one of the most favorite sports to the Americans.Also, the development of baseball is earlier than any other sports in the United States.American baseball prevails in the eighteenth century and has more-than-two-hundred-yearhistory. More and more Americans suppose that baseball has become an indispensablepart of American history. In America, baseball is considered the National Myth. Nomatter how the country develops, it is easy to find baseball throughout its history.Playing baseball asks players to use both their wisdom and power. The cooperationwith the others and sacrifice for teammates are very crucial. Also, through hard struggle,many baseball players can make their dreams come true. In1947, Major League Baseballtook the lead in breaking racial segregation. In addition, at weekends, watching baseballgames with family members shows the importance of family values. Through inheritingabove spirit, baseball cultures have penetrated into Americans’ lives deeply.America is considered a great country on film industry worldwide; the contents thatAmerican movies express have close relation with national cultures. Therefore, amonglarge quantities of American movies, there are lots of baseball-related ones. However, theinfluence of American baseball cultures is not just represented in this kind of movies;through digging out baseball spirit from the movies that do not depict baseball, it canfurther reflect the importance of baseball in American traditional cultures.This thesis has three main chapters. In Chapter One, it introduces origin anddevelopment of baseball and analyzes main reasons why baseball is called the NationalBallgame. In Chapter Two, it analyzes main baseball spirit, which can lead to the reasonwhy American baseball can be developed to be the National Myth. In Chapter Three, itelaborates American baseball spirit represented in American movies, which can furtherexplain close relation and mutual influence among baseball spirit, the National Myth andmovie representations in the United States.