Put Me in Coach, I'm Ready to Play

Congratulations to Ms. Sarah Carlson for correctly identifying "Oh My Sweet Carolina" by Ryan Adams as the song of the day yesterday. I can always count on correct answers from the Carlson family on the days when I choose songs from the alt-country genre.

A couple of days ago, I wrote about how the holiday break gives me a great opportunity to think. It also presents a wealth of time to engage in one of my other favorite pastimes, reading. I recently began David Halberstam's October 1964, which chronicles the epic World Series matchup between the Yankees and Cardinals. The most interesting part of the book is Halberstam's understanding that sports are only important in their relation to the culture that they take place within.

In the early 1960's, the tumult and change that was taking place across the United States was reflected in the dominant sport of the day, which was professional baseball. As the nation learned to adjust to changing concerns and reforms regarding civil rights, the locker rooms and clubhouses of sports franchises served as microcosm of what those changes looked like in practice.

This World Series also served as the beginning of the end for the Yankee dynasty, which had come to hold a place in the American mind as a powerful institution in the mold of General Motors or U.S. Steel. This is Halberstam's gift as a writer. Due to the fact that his writing is never solely focused on the subject of sports, he is able to bring a much wider perspective to his work than many writers who write on a much more limited scope. He paints a broad picture of how something as small as a baseball game can serve as an example of the changes that America was experiencing in the crucible of the 1960's.