Natural Patriotism
"For someone whose roots in America were strong but only inches deep, and who had no experience... of an awesome hierarchy that was real and felt, baseball was a kind of secular church that reached into every class and region of and bound millions upon millions of us together in common concerns, loyalties, rituals, enthusiasms, and antagonisms. Baseball made me understand what patriotism was about, at its best."
"It seems to me that through baseball I was put in touch with a more humane and tender brand of patriotism, lyrical rather than martial or righteous in spirit, and without the reek of saintly zeal, a patriotism that could not so easily be sloganized, or contained in a high-sounding formula to which you had to pledge something vague... " - Philip Roth, My Baseball Years
12:53:34 AM 
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