COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — The ball clubs have departed their springtime nests, pennant hopes are flowering like daffodils, the ancient game is springing to life again. For even the lowliest teams — maybe including your favorite — the future seems improbably bright at this juncture of the season.
But for all the future hopes, it's the richness of baseball's past that sets it apart in American cultural life. Edmund Burke (1729-1797), the 18th-century philosopher and legislator often considered the lodestar of conservatism, inadvertently expressed the essence of baseball when, in his most influential work, "Reflections on the Revolution in France," he wrote in 1790 of society as a "partnership not only between those who are living, but between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are yet to be born."
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Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.