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UNIVERSITY OF PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND

MARCH. 1970

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sport, ~ andtheh i cl e o I o g i 25

copped in its entirety from The McGill Daily

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BY HENRY SREBRNIK

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“Sports are too important to be left to the sportswriters”.

Most soacalled “serious” analyses of sports deal with their wider cul- tural implications as mass spectator circuses on the current North Am- erican landscape, their relationship to the ideology of business and con- umption, and sometimes muckrak— 'ng on various “stars” and “heroes”

ho have seized the Main Chance and I ve parlayed their physical skills nto a ticket for entry into the busi- ess elite, mainly through advertis- ng and television. Rarely, however, as anyone analyzed the actual ideo' ogical implications of the games 1 emselves, and their relationship to ther modes of thought and develop—

ent in society.

We have thus chosen three of Am- rica’s most important (from a fin— ncial angle, at least!) sports, to see ' hat there is about them that makes hem unique.

First, there is ice hockey. 'IIhis ame corresponds most closely to a I 'bal vision of the world. The roles f the individual players (with the » ception of the goaler) remain very nspecialized and the team as in the e se of a tribe plays with a type of tuition every player “knowing” here he must be on ice etc. This ffers greatly from the actual ex- icit and formalized “plays” of a tball game with its much greater vision of labour and hence loss of ganic cohesion, thus requiring, as

a modern state actual “discourse” he huddle) about actions to be

en.

Also in hockey, the: concept of ter- ry is meaningless, there being ly one object, to score a goal, this ing the only way to gain points. us the opposing team’s goaT’as- mes the role of a temple and the: aler a guardian-priest, or holy a, to be conquered as one primi- e tribe conquered another by ap-

propriating its gods and village, since there were no actual formal boundar- ies between tribes. The goal is all, it is quite- literally the only goal in the game, possession of the puck being very haphazard and position on the ice almost meaningless. (It is of course very relevant to note at this point that hockey probably did have its origins in lacrosse a type of sur- rogate for tribal war fought between different villages among Indians).

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ceptions or fumbles—Le. “accidents” ~—in halting the enemy territorially along the front line, World War One style. Both teams are indeed mod- ern armies, with extreme specializa- tion (including entire offensive and defensive divisions). Unlike the ra- ther anarchic primitive warfare that is hockey, where players in effect really are both offensive and defen~ sive in function, since play changes so rapidly in football conquest of

HOCKEY; A tribal vision of the world.

The game of football corresponds most closely to modern nation-states

at war with one another. The field i

may be seen as representing the to tal territory of the two states, with the 55 yard line as a boundary, and both armies engage in ceaseless marching into the others’ terrain, with one side mounting an. offensive that cannot be stopped until possess sion of the ball changes hands some- thing much more difficult to accom- plish than in hockey, of course, since it depends except in cases of inter-

FOOTBALL: Halting the enemy territorially along the front line

territory is a more complex matter,’ (and; is. rewarded and recognized

(through the concept of “downs”)

-—indeed, if one can penetrate the enemy’s area deeply enough, even without total conquest (a touch- down) one is still given a lesser re-

ward (a fieldsgoal). In hockey, with

its lack of territorial principle, this

would be meaningless and are

rewarded only when the other tribe’s

holy area is conquered. ’

The third game is most complex of all representing a more advanced form of economic principle,- that of Lockian liberalism and mediated conh flict. This game, baseball, (a game very much in tune with the ideals of 19th century America), sees con flict as necessary but is hopeful that actual brutality may be kept to a minimum. Thus there is no actual

physical contact between the teams

(indeed offense and defense are to tally separate, with each team hav- ing “turn at bat” per inning, and with the offensive team represented by the batter alone). In baseball, the ball and the umpire are thus media tors of conflict (true, football and even heckey also have officials, but only to watch that rules are being observed -— in effect, were you to have a perfect infractionless game, in theory the Whistle might never be blown during the entire 60 min- utes. In: baseball, however, the um-

pire is an integral part of the game—

it cannot go on Without him, as he

calls .balls and strikes). Baseball, too“ is unconcerned with territory, ’ not in the sense hockey is (for there

,the concern is merely underdevelop-

ed)“ but because the are not scoring directly against each other, they are not attempting to attack the other team’s area. The field thus remains entirely irrelevant, it is merely an'area of importance for the mediator (the ball), and players of the two teams see no need to con— quer or gain control of it. (Indeed, the offensive player in baseball is severely circumscribed as to where he may move —-— only along the base lines). In this way the teams: never directly oppose each other, physically or even territorially (as, say, in a game of checkers) —- instead, both are concerned with the ball which becomes a surrogate for conflict and point-scoring. 7 . v

The rise of football and the decline in the popularity ’of baseball in the United States since World. War II takes on a sinister implication, there— fore, when one sees the ideological implications behind both games. From a nation of merely competitive businessmen they have become a vast army conquering other fields (or at least deeply penetrating the-m) . From the World Series to the Super Bowl — this can now be seen as» part of the larger movement which h a s transformed] America from a largely self-contained. p r i v a t e enterprise country to the greatest imperial pow- er of our age.

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BASEBALL: Lockian liberalism'and - mediated conflict.