Edition No. 68
Arts and Culture
The Henry Ford explores what it is about baseball that makes it America’s national pastime.
Community and Family
Baseball is back! Various Detroit restaurants and venues are gearing up for the Detroit Tigers’ first official home game of the season!
American Democracy
This week, we call your attention to two pieces on the role of baseball, our national game, in American life during World War II.
Baseball: America’s national pastime
With baseball back in action, we look this week at what a metro Detroit museum has to say about how baseball became the national pastime.
This article from the Henry Ford in Dearborn references when in 1867, the city of Detroit hosted the "World's Tournament of Base Ball." The tournament was held at the grounds of the Detroit Base Ball Club during one August week over 150 years ago.
Each summer, Greenfield Village commemorates Detroit’s 1867 tournament with a gathering of teams that play an outstanding weekend of America’s game by the rules of 1867.
Take a look at The Henry Ford’s article below to see just what it is about baseball that makes it America’s national pastime.
Play ball!
The calendar has flipped to April and with it comes the Detroit Tigers home opener and the start of the 2022 Major League Baseball season! The Tigers home opener is April 8 at 1:10 p.m. against the Chicago White Sox at Comerica Park.
Last year’s hometown team finished in third place in the American League Central Division, with a record of 77-85. New additions to this year’s squad include outfielder Austin Meadows, catcher Tucker Barnhart, and shortstop Javier Baez. Manager A.J. Hinch is in his second year of leading the team, a roster that is looking to make it to the playoffs for the first time since 2014.
Check out Detroit Tigers beat reporter Jason Beck’s Opening Day preview of the 2022 Detroit Tigers at the button below.
Looking for things to do around town for Opening Day? The Detroit News recently shared a round up of various restaurants, bars and venues around the city that are hosting exciting events for the Detroit Tigers’ first official home game of the season. Click on the button below to read what locations - within walking distance of the stadium - have in store for the big day! Visit www.detroitnews.com for more details!
Baseball and World War II
This week, we call your attention to two pieces on the role of baseball, our national game, in American life during World War II. The first, considers why professional baseball continued to operate at all during the war years. The second considers the role of amateur baseball in the lives of one particular group of Americans who otherwise had very little to look forward to during the War.
“I honestly feel that it would be best for the country to keep baseball going.” – President Franklin D. Roosevelt
“Should Sports Be Stopped During the War?” National World War II Museum, New Orleans
The National World War II Museum in New Orleans has a nice piece online concerning how, and why, professional baseball continued through the Second World War II. Centered on a 1942 Gallup Poll asking a representative sample of Americans whether baseball should continue, the piece also introduces readers to an archive of wartime polling available through the Museum. For access to the piece on wartime baseball and the other polls, follow the button below.
"Without baseball, camp life would have been miserable” -- George Omachi, World War II internee and, later, Major League Scout
“Baseball Behind Barbed Wire,” National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
The acquisition of a baseball uniform worn by Tetsuo Furukawa during a thirteen game, 1944 all-star series between teams representing the Gila River (Arizona) and Heart Mountain (Wyoming) incarceration camps prompted the Smithsonian Institution to consider role that baseball played in the lives of the 120,000+ Americans of Japanese descent who were interned by the US Government during the War. Seven camps spawned active baseball leagues and four, including Gila River and Heart Mountain, had teams that were permitted to travel for games. For more on World War II baseball behind barbed wire, click the button bellow.
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