Politics divides us in two. But I remembered a better way by watching baseball | Opinion

If there is one thing Americans can agree on these days, it’s how often and stridently we disagree with each other. Reporters, columnists, and editorial writers are having a field day documenting and then analyzing polarization in the American public. We all struggle to identify the reasons for our political malaise so we might find ways to unite Americans with a common purpose as occurred after 9/11.

Sometimes it feels like gazing into an abyss where it is impossible to see clearly just where this all ends. Barbara F. Walter leaves us with a most disturbing thought from her studies in strife-ridden nations documented in her book, “How Civil Wars Start.” Is America headed in the same direction? That scary possibility causes me to ask if there are any such places where folks from disparate backgrounds can gather today with common purpose.

Although I had not intended to experience the feeling that all seems right with the world, that is exactly what happened when I recently attended a Seattle Mariners baseball game. As a former Chicagoan who rooted for the hapless Cubs for years — until they surprised everyone in 2016 by winning the World Series — it’s second nature for me to follow the Mariners who struggle every year to hit the .500 mark and usually find themselves fighting to stay out of the cellar. (For those who don’t follow sports lingo, that means fighting to stay out of last place in their division.) During the Cubs’ many struggling seasons, the best cheer the fans could come up with was, “Wait ‘til next year.” That works for the Mariners most years I’ve followed them.

But what a perfect time to reflect on the role baseball plays in bringing people together and distracting folks from their differences. In a nation deeply divided over its politics, we need all the help we can get in finding and focusing on what we have in common and how we can celebrate our similarities rather than shout out our differences.

We have lots of “teams” these days that separate us from one another. The most obvious, Republicans and Democrats — were recently discovered by the Pew Research Center to be more deeply divided along ideological lines than at any point in the last two decades. The parties struggle to resuscitate the kind of bipartisanship many of us remember from another era.

Then there’s the evangelicals versus traditional religions that dig in over issues like abortions, women in the clergy and LGBTQ rights. There’s Team Urban America versus Team Rural America where citizens take sides based on where they live and the degree of exposure to folks who don’t look like them. Then there’s the team of workers who lost well-paying manufacturing jobs to international trade agreements versus the team of workers in the technology sector that eliminate even more jobs. Add the college-educated team versus the high-school graduate team to the mix and you have all you need for a cocktail of incivility, violence, and paralysis from school boards to Congress, realized in full form on January 6, 2021.

What drives folks to the conspiratorial hysteria that causes them to dig ever so deeply into their trenches and manufacture their own set of facts and beliefs that drives them to insurrection? I thought about that recently at that Seattle Mariners game when I experienced that exhilarating feeling of being in communion with Americans who came to the game for only reason— to root for their hometown team.

The ticket takers were welcoming to one and all. Gone were the differences over everything as silly as the color of your hair or as serious as the color of your skin. There was no way to tell the Republicans from the Democrats, but if there was a visible and obvious partisan divide, like some folks wearing tee shirts declaring their politics, I’m not sure it would have made any difference at the ballpark.

There was, instead, a feverish spirit in the air that was just about fans coming together to enjoy America’s favorite pastime. Some fans even come to root for the visiting team, like the Yankees or the Red Sox who draw substantial numbers of fans no matter where they play. But in those cases, it’s about friendly rivalries with folks joshing each other about the superiority of their team. There is just something about being inside that ballpark that makes those rivalries much different than those in our politics or on our streets.

There’s also an important lesson baseball can teach Americans as we struggle to separate fact from fiction. Major League Baseball enforces the difference between fact and fiction, and fans abide by it. The game allows for video replays of umpire decisions on close calls on the bases. Who do we believe? Those who say the runner was safe or those who see he was out? The manager who wants a review of the play calls for a video replay in the Major League’s New York’s office to second guess the ump’s call. There’s a delay in the game as the league office determines the facts of the matter.

Now that’s how to fact-check a statement of supposed fact. Not unlike the fact-checkers on the Internet or media outlets who check on the accuracy of a statement, the league office in New York ends the tussle between fact and fiction and calls the runner safe or out. That call is final and the fans move on.

Too often in real life, especially with politicians like Donald Trump who makes it up as he goes along, his fans fall for his lies and misrepresentations with little access to or interest in the truth. It’s all about sticking to Team Trump’s version of the truth whether it bears any relationship to reality or not.

Here’s where the media could take a lesson from the majors. So often TV’s headline news does little but report the claims of a public official or candidate, with no backup as to whether it can be verified. Viewers are left to their own devices to figure out fact from fake. In his 2016 bid for the presidency, when Donald Trump first played loosely with the truth, media outlets like CNN just ran the tapes with no attempt to distinguish fact from fiction. Just recently, NPR ran an absurd quote of Trump’s at the Iowa Lincoln Dinner with no attempt to follow up with the truth of the matter.

There is another lesson baseball offers a nation still divided over race and immigration with the right wing now descending on those who foster goals of diversity and inclusion in American society. Jackie Robinson Day at all major league ballparks on April 15 every year honors the man who broke the color barrier in major league baseball on that day in 1947. Every major league player takes the field wearing Robinson’s number #42. What a bold and effective reminder of the heroics it took for the first African American to integrate the majors and suffer the racist abuse and indignities with such class and courage.

Major league baseball has come a long way from the days of Jackie Robinson. Today, American players share the diamond with teammates from nations across the globe — Australia, Japan, South and Central America and S. Korea — showing us how diversity adds value to the team effort and reminds fans that baseball respects all colors, ethnic or national affiliations. When they take the field to play ball, the only trace of rivalry or division is the name of the team on their back.

If only Team America could experience the unity built on diversity that the majors exemplify every time a team takes the field. If only all Americans could at least play by the rules of the game and accept the final call on election night. But in the meantime, find your way to a ball game and experience the unity and diversity major league baseball has to offer. Who knows? It may rub off on Team America.

Bob Kustra served as president of Boise State University from 2003 to 2018. He is host of Readers Corner on Boise State Public Radio and he writes a biweekly column for the Idaho Statesman. He served two terms as Illinois lieutenant governor and 10 years as a state legislator.