4 OPINION f Page 4 Friday, October 5, 1984 The Michigan Daily A weird hangup called hating baseball , By Jackie Young I just don't understand -it. What's the big deal? Why do men and some women, flock to television sets, with eyes glued for hours on end? All I know is that the Tigers of Detroit are doing really well. Governor Blanchard announced during roll call at the Democratic National Convention that"Michigan was the state of the Detroit Tigers. The state Legislature passed a formal resolution recognizing the winning baseball team for bringing honor to Michigan. All the gifted scholars and humanitarians in the world go practically unnoticed, but the ole' boys club (the legislature is predominantly male) decides to bestow an award of merit to some other group of men who bat balls around for a living. I think many politicians, and many men for that matter, are frustrated baseball players. And men who aren't interested in baseball feel like they should be-they feel somehow emasculated. The attractiveness of this game, I can't help but feel, is somehow related to the fact that women can only play softball. Baseball is an exclusive club. Sure, women can watch it, and some do, but they can never really play it. Female baseball fans can cheer but can never hit a home run. Softball just isn't the same. BUT I DON'T CARE. I don't want to play baseball or football or any other predominantly male sport. I confess, I bought football tickets this year and didn't even use them. I had inten- tions of being a loyal fan, but they fizzled out and I ended up giving the tickets to my father who worships all basketball, football, and baseball players. Yet, somehow I feel incom- plete. I ask myself, what is my flaw that I can't enjoy baseball? Is it just some weird hangup? I have discussed this matter with individuals dedicated to the preservation of the great American pasttime, and they just gawk at me as if I had some rare affliction. They question my sanity and my knowledge of the world. It's true that I have never been to a professional baseball game and I do have a curiosity about many things that I haven't done. It still irritates me, however, when a good television show is pre-empted by a game - something 'which happens far too frequently. Sixty Minutes has more redeeming qualities than the football games or baseball games which eat in- to its time. It is no small wonder to me when I read the ratings and they show that most Americans watched the World Series and not the presidential address. Friends tell me that people have to relax and just let go, and that sports like baseball allow them to release tension. But my father's blood pressure must rise at least five to ten notches when he watches a game. He often yells at the set at the top of his lungs and pounds his fist on a nearby chair. I leave the area when this begins. Some release of tension. I get nervous just listening to him rant and rave over a bunch of guys hitting a wad of leather around a dirt field. My dad, a social worker for the state, doesn't even yell as much about Ronald Reagan's policies and their effect on the poor and the elderly, as he does about baseball, basketball, and especially Michigan football. WHAT MOTIVATES sports fanatics? And why aren't more women as caught up in spor- ts? I hate to make more out of this than there actually is, but I'm convinced there is some deeper meaning behind these social patterns and that it is too easily overlooked. And I'm really getting tired of people asking me, "How 'bout them Tigs?" because I am usually forced to pretend that I am interested and informed about them. Lately, I have even begun to read the myriad news stories on the Tigers. That disturbs me. I am not one to bow to peer pressure. I do, though, wish to comprehend the mind- set of all the people who are fascinated with these types of sports, especially baseball. They don't really like that corny organ music that they always play at the games, do they? The only reason I can see for attending baseball games is to get those hot dogs, apple pies, and Chevrolets. Well, to tell the truth, I really don't like hot dogs that much. Maybe I'm just not a true American. Young is a Daily Opinion Page Editor. I S4 11 Failing to get excited-about baseball calls into question your patriotism and sexuality. Females need not apply. All-male sports also have a tendency to alienate the fairer sex. 4 ie s det gan aity i Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan Vol. XCV, No. 26 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board Take as necessary HE SPECTER of nuclear war constantly looms over people's heads. Some try to push thoughts Tof a nuclear catastrophe out of their mind by focusing on other things - by enjoying life now and not worrying about the future. Others can't drive it from their minds so they protest high military budgets and military research, promote peace research and diplomatic options, or vote for responsible leaders in an-at- tempt to reduce the likelihood that nations will annihilate each other. But students at Brown University have thought up a most unusual ap- proach to the nuclear threat. They have asked that the college health ser- vice provide them with cyanide pills for consumption in the event of a' nuclear war. Such a proposal is ab- surd, but then again, so is the nuclear arms race. President Reagan has at times referred to winning a nuclear confron- tation when, as most scientists believe, even one single powerful nuclear weapon dropped on the U.S.S.R. would have such adverse after-effects that it would change life as we know it on this planet. Although the president has toned down his rhetoric in recent mon- ths and will now admit that a nuclear confrontation can't be won, this nation and numerous others continue to invest large sums of money to maintain and build up their arsenals. An absurd situation. The students' proposal has strong undercurrents of hopelessness. They assume a world where protest is meaningless because the injustice has already been committed. The hopeless view of an individual's power to stop the arms race may be somewhat realistic since protesting the arms race has proven time and again to be a futile exercise. Demanding suicide pills is a unique strategy to wake up the public to their cause. Thirteen percent of the Brown University student body signed petitions to have all students vote on the need for cyanide pills if there should be nuclear war. The measure is a non-binding referendum so college officials will not have to abide by what the students decide. Ultimately, however, everyone is bound. by the dangers nuclear weapons pose. The most absurd and frightening aspect of this issue is that everyone must abide by the decisions of a few government officials in the White House. These few have the authority to take life away from all of us. Yet they only have that power because citizens entrusted it to them. So we are all responsible, in a sense, for, their abusing that powersandcommitting suicide will solve nothing. Suicide is a way of avoiding the burden of respon- sibility and guilt. The students at Brown who proposed the suicide pills may have helped to raise people's fear of nuclear war. But certainly everyone can be more effective by using another strategy. Choosing the president who will best keep this country out of a nuclear confrontation is one step toward creating a society with a future. Cramer II X1 11 ttt f t i Qf r' y ,,,, l f .q M i 4 I SEZ IM NoT A CR0oK \ **._. i RAY bONOVAN DA"'NOT GUILTrY: LETTERS' TO THE DAILY A ddressing the cheap patriotism To the Daily: I write in response to Henryk Skolimowski's article "Making right history by right choices" (Dail? September 26). Although Skolimowski has legitimate concerns over the'ab- surdity of Reaganism, he does not go far enough in addressing the "cheap patriotism" that runs rampant in the Republican Par- ty. His personal statement comes at the expense of not explaining the collective' mentality of the Republican Party. One of the most disturbing aspects of this collective -men- tality we are witnessing today is its ability to remain silent in the face of criticism. The Republican motto has become "Silence is our best defense." And when this fails, the safety net motto is "When confused change the of Michigan - has become fertile grounds for the new conser- vatism of the eighties. The disturbing characteristic of this movement toward conservatism is that it has come about free from open debates or public forums. It has evolved through silence. It has evolved through avoiding conflict and minimizing the significance of politics in our everyday lives. To my amazement I have yet to, see a Michigan student wearing a Reagan/Bush button. It is as if politics and critical debates and discussions have become taboo in our public life. They have become sensitive topics only to share with very close friends. In one respect this silencing of conservatism is a hopeful sign. It means that young Republicans are incapable or fearful of ar- ticulating the Reagan dogma simply because they do not truly believe in it - it is sort of a fateful acceptance someone for- cefully grows into; it is a social mythology that one inherits from wealthy parents that have the best intentions. The real fear of being challenged, for young Republicans, is the fear of losing the sense of right people have to become rich, at least as rich as their parents. Perhaps professoro, both liberal and conservative, are also to blame for the silencing of political debates. At one of the so- called best universities in the world, is it not the moral respon- sibility of professors to challenge, students to openly debate and think critically about those even- ts that will profoundly affect our, lives? We cannot leave all such work to street performers like" Stoney Burke. For if we all have' the right to believe in what we, believe, we also have the respon- sibility to share and articulate, our beliefs to other people. This is the side of democracy that is silenced by the new conser- vatism. .. ........ Unsigned editori als appearing S' t If 0 - Charles Barbieri October 2 h Rerke Breathed BLOOM COUNTY _ .t7_ 7 r. - 0 7 I I