“The Meaning of Sports”
The Significance of the Rise of
American Team Sports During the
19th and 20th Centuries
I. Ingredients for the
Emergence of Team Sports

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
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
Longer Childhoods
Public Education
Growth of Cities
Modern Methods of
Transportation
Addresses the needs of
the spirit and the
psyche
II. Diversion from the
Routines of Life

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
“Disport”
Need for diversion
increased in modern
era
Link with drama
Team Sports offer
compelling drama
Team Sports as a sort
of epic
III. Team Sports Feature
Coherence

Basic Human Need
 Modern lives much
less predictable and
explicable
 Neither art nor
religion offer modern
coherence for many
 Team Sports—haven
from incoherence
IV. Sports and Contemporary
Parallels
Sports’ resemblance to
the Detective Novel
 History of Movies run
parallel to modern
team sports
--Reaching Mass
Culture
--Similar shifts in
power

V. Star Power on Sports
Teams

Power of Attraction
 Authenticity of Star
Players’ lives
 Are ballplayers
entertainers?
 Sports provides heroes
--source of admiration
--model for emulation
V. Star Power on Sports
Teams (cont.)

Superior Athletes as
Appropriate Role
Models
--Train Diligently
--Perform under
Pressure
 Significance of Hall of
Fame
V. Star Power on Sports
Teams (cont.)

Rare qualities of
sports stars
 Heroic appeal through
authenticity that can
be observed
 Reliable testimonials
for consumer goods
VI. “Democracy” reflected in
Team Sports

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Not a political system, but
the notion of social
equality
Aristocracy of ancient
sport
Team sports before the
modern era
Significance of what
players wear
-- “uniform”
VI. “Democracy” in Team Sports
(cont.)

Discontent with the
sameness of the
uniform in late 20th
Century
 Team Sports reflect
the principle of merit
 Sports as a reflection
of the French
Revolution
VII. Team Sports as a Reflection
of the Market Economy

Changes during the
Industrial Revolution
-- “division of labor”
 Specialization and
Interdependence
 Competition in Sports
and the Marketplace
VIII. Rules in Sports and the
Market Economy

Significance of Rules
 Preeminence of rules
in the United States
 Properties of Sports
rules
--universal
--transparent
--legitimate
VIII. Rules in Sports (cont.)

Umpires and Referees
-- “Whistle-Blowing”
 Rules for Scoring
 Rules governing the effort
to Score
 Rules governing behavior
toward officials
 Rules against trying “not”
to win
 Deception allowed except
as related to the pursued
goal
IX. Professional Sports and the
Equality of Opportunity

The role of the
amateur draft
 The role of the salary
cap
 European preference
for equality of results
 Difficulty of a tie in
professional American
sports
X. Impact of Sports on
Spectators

Emotional
Identification
 Monetary
Identification
 European Sports tend
to divide people
 American professional
sports tend to unite
--e pluribus unum
XI. Impact of Sports on
Spectators (cont.)


Sports as a reflection of
American geographic
mobility
Sports as a reflection of
the American “melting
pot”
--John McGraw
--Lou Gehrig
--Sandy Koufax
--Tony Lazzeri
XII. Why 3 Major Team Sports
in the United States?

Variety due to
seasonal schedules
 Reflect different eras
of economic activity
--Baseball: agrarian
--Football: industrial
--Basketball: postindustrial