Yankee Stadium Fan Plunges From Upper Deck

[Imran Siddiqui]

And how long have they been doing that Asher? It's amazing that they've been emulating anglo-american culture, but yet baseball started to take off in the early 60s and soccer took off in the early 90s.

Sorry Asher, try again.

[Winston]

I just read DanS' last two posts, which seem to explain a good deal of the attraction that baseball holds. It's very much a cultural and social thing, so it seems.

Just don't go calling it a sport.

Imran and I will just have to agree to disagree. Maybe I shouldn't get too involved in a discussion of baseball, at least not before I've actually watched it enough to know what's going on.

But then Asher has, and he seems sensible enough.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
And how long have they been doing that Asher? It's amazing that they've been emulating anglo-american culture, but yet baseball started to take off in the early 60s and soccer took off in the early 90s.

Sorry Asher, try again.

What does that have to do with anything?

You may as well argue that since Tamogachi toys came out in the late 90s that invalidates my point.

Latin America and Japan look at US popculture with envy and emulate a lot of it. That's just a plain observable fact, and nothing more. It's not surprising that a popular US sport that doesn't require much in the way of equipment becomes popular there.

[DanS]

Regarding the statistics, you don't have to like them or even understand them much in order to enjoy the game of baseball. Everybody who likes baseball may like different aspects of the game.

For me, the statistics began with baseball cards that I bought as a little kid. On the front is an action picture of the player. On the back is the player's career stats by year. A little kid can remember an awful lot of statistics. So it's all very nostalgic for me.

In any event, I'm not sure whether Americans' love of statistics preceded baseball or is the result of baseball. As a student of history, I would have to guess that Americans had an out of the ordinary love of statistics well before baseball was invented, what with the almanacs that were colonial American specialties, etc.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Why don't you ask Hueij? He's from around your neck of the woods (Netherlands) and he loves baseball. He keeps bothering me to bring back my Bull Durham quote in my signature .

I don't know his background, but he isn't an Amero-phile from what I've read of his (so no need to try to fit into the cultural and social thing), and I don't see him as following tradition (seems to have as much 'tradition' for him as it did for me... my parents aren't even from the US and I started getting interested in baseball around my 15th birthday).

[Asher]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Why don't you ask Hueij? He's from around your neck of the woods (Netherlands) and he loves baseball. He keeps bothering me to bring back my Bull Durham quote in my signature .

I don't know his background, but he isn't an Amero-phile from what I've read of his (so no need to try to fit into the cultural and social thing), and I don't see him as following tradition (seems to have as much 'tradition' for him as it did for me... my parents aren't even from the US and I started getting interested in baseball around my 15th birthday).

This effect is referred to as the "melting pot of America".

[Imran Siddiqui]

Latin America and Japan look at US popculture with envy and emulate a lot of it.

I wonder what happened to the 'anglo' part of that 'culture' .

[Asher]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
I wonder what happened to the 'anglo' part of that 'culture' .

Do you also wonder about scissors and peanut butter with sporks?

[Imran Siddiqui]

No, but I do wonder about Canadians who tend to avoid questions.

[Asher]

Or the Americans who ask questions that are ambiguous.

I wonder what happened to the 'anglo' part of that 'culture' .

Define "that 'culture' -- are you referring to 'anglo' culture in the US?

I think a certain rebellion happened which may've curbed much of that.

[DanS]

Regarding the Japanese, please note that the game became popular in Japan during the Meiji Restoration -- decades before WWII, when American pop culture became an everyday thing for the Japanese. They appear to have adopted the game without all of the American cultural baggage.

The spread of baseball in Asia can be traced more to the Japanese than Americans.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Define "that 'culture'

[q=Asher] they're emulating anglo-american culture[/q]

It's nice when you are purposely being obtuse when you have painted yourself in a corner.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui

Define "that 'culture'

[q=Asher] they're emulating anglo-american culture[/q]

It's nice when you are purposely being obtuse when you have painted yourself in a corner.

That wasn't in the quote you provided. You need to provide the proper context when you ask a question. You responded to a statement involving 3 cultures and then referred to "that" culture -- that's a poorly worded sentence that is ambiguous. As a lawyer, unambiguous wording should be second nature to you. It is to me, and that's just because I work with compilers and hate ambiguous grammars and languages.

And the "anglo" part is referring to the sport you call "soccer" that is becoming popular in Japan.

Next question?

[Winston]

Hueij being a follower of baseball is interesting indeed. Quite extraordinary for a European, I honestly have never heard of anyone else on this continent who had the same inclination.

We have informal games that could be regarded as similar to baseball, which are mostly played by kids, and I guess some people could go on to pick up on American baseball as adults by extension, I've just never heard of anyone who did.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Asher: It's nice when you are purposely being obtuse when you have painted yourself in a corner.

---

And like I said soccer has recently become popular, where was this anglo-american culture popularity back in the 60s, 70s, 80s... etc..

[q=DanS]Regarding the Japanese, please note that the game became popular in Japan during the Meiji Restoration -- decades before WWII, when American pop culture became an everyday thing for the Japanese.[/q]

Interesting, the Japanese professional league had to take a year off because of World War II. Though I'd say it hit its stride when Sadaharu Oh was crushing the ball, but yes, been around in Japan almost as long as its been around in the US.