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The Game Of Baseball Was Invented By Abner Doubleday Essay

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The game of baseball was invented by Abner Doubleday, in 1839- 177 years ago from today. Baseball has been, and is still today, known as America’s favorite pastime; additionally, due to its extensive history and partaking it monumental events, it can as well serve as a great topic to use in a story or poem. Poet Dale Ritterbusch, uses the game of baseball along with metaphors in his poem as a vehicle to write about a more substantial subject in poetry, the Vietnam War. His poem, “Behind the Plate”, can be simply over-looked to one as just a poem about an overweight catcher; nonetheless, when closely examined, it has a deeper meaning. Authors Michael Cocchiarale and Scott Emmert, both agree with the statement that baseball is a great outlet for further analysis of a more important subject: “Writers have seen sports, particularly baseball, as a useful vehicle for cultural and epistemological analysis” (Cocchiarale). The poem, “Behind the Plate”, starts off with the line: “Always the dumbest and fattest kid played catcher” (Ritterbusch, “Behind”); however, Dale Ritterbusch chose to start this poem with that statement for a reason- it sets a tone for the rest of the poem to have a certain meaning. The fat catcher is known to specifically represent America in the Vietnam War; the catcher is fat because, well, in history catchers in baseball are often overweight. Additionally, in general- one who is fat in sports often has a disadvantage, even in the case of being a catcher, and

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