My Olympic Mis-Education

How the 1984 baseball final forever changed my politics

Matt Welch | August 14, 2008

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The ride home with my friend's dad was totally silent, as if we were keeping our lips sealed about some terrible crime. In the following days, I noticed everything began to look different. The crowd-whipping antics of Wally George were no longer funny. Republican politics in general, particularly the flag-waving, lefty-baiting strain, became revolting overnight. So did knee-jerk, anti-Ronnie Ray-gun rhetoric. Religious settings of all varieties—Southern California was then going through a big fundamentalist revival—became intolerable exercises in peer-and-God pressure. People who I had internally dismissed as outcasts at school I now externally sought after as friends. People whose approval I once craved were suddenly ridiculous to me. I started gravitating toward any book that challenged the accepted wisdom of a topic I thought I knew, starting with baseball. And any time I found myself in an overwhelming majority, my first question became, "What if we're wrong?"

None of this made me a better person, obviously, and undergoing a change of heart at age 16 is about as rare and interesting as the sun rising in the east, but I feel better having confessed. And, if you see me wincing into my beer at the forced displays of legacy-party political unity over the next three weeks, know that my inner adolescent is still in there, screaming: GO SHANE MACK!

Matt Welch is the editor in chief of reason and the author of McCain: The Myth of a Maverick, which will be released in paperback on September 16.

Comments

The Extispicator|8.14.08 @ 3:18PM|#

Just think, had they let pros play in the exhibition game as they do today, Welch would be just another koo-aid drinking McCain hack right now.

|8.14.08 @ 3:26PM|#

I'm no Nipponophile (appreciation of Kurosawa films and some anime notwithstanding), but I find it hard not to root for the Japanese after watching Ninja Warrior on G4. On the last course, an American was the only one who made it to stage three, and the Japanese "All-Stars" were extremely supportive and it was obvious that they shared his disappointment when he didn't complete the course. Maybe they're dicks in other sports, but on Ninja Warrior, they're 100% class.

Cool Cal|8.14.08 @ 3:50PM|#

I would just like to take this as an opportunity to mention that this reminded me of a fascinating if flawed 80's relic, which happened to have come on television recently. The Ron Howard/Michael Keaton 1986 comedy, Gung Ho. With the ravishing Mimi Rogers as well.

|8.14.08 @ 3:54PM|#

Up until about 13 or so i would consistently confused Nazi Germany with the USSR. I blame the mishmash of plastic soldiers I had which were a mix of WW2 and modern types.

That and the fact that Nazi Germany and The USSR are pretty much the same thing.

|8.14.08 @ 4:03PM|#

That was a really great article. After years of George Will topped off with Ken Burns, I was convinced baseball was the sport of self-centered conceited dorks.

I don't think I'll start watching the game. But now I won't be so quick to judge someone a gnat-brain because they're a baseball fan.

NoStar|8.14.08 @ 4:06PM|#

Joshua C,
Nazi Germany and the USSR, as evil as they were, were not anything alike. Germany oppressed people in order to secure the Fatherland. The USSR oppressed people to secure the Motherland.

But make no mistake, just because the USA oppress people in the name of Homeland Security in no way makes our government evil like they were.

/end ironic snark)

Alan Vanneman|8.14.08 @ 4:06PM|#

You mean, the Japanese aren't commies? I'm going to have to think about this.

Windypundit|8.14.08 @ 4:06PM|#

What's really scary is that some people who did what Welch did...would have loved it. I thinkn many of those people are in government these days.

|8.14.08 @ 4:12PM|#

"I was convinced baseball was the sport of self-centered conceited dorks."

That's why so many of us are libertarians as well. :)

My favorite memory from the 1984 Olympics were the McDonald's giveaways. Basically if the U.S. won a medal in the sport featured on your cup or box o' fries, you won more food. When the Soviet Bloc boycotted, the U.S. won medals in sports it never medaled in and McDonald's wound up giving away tons of free food.

Episiarch|8.14.08 @ 4:15PM|#

We lost to the Japanese?!?!?!?

Cool Cal|8.14.08 @ 4:52PM|#

Any criticism you can level against baseball is completely subjective, and similar ones can be made of any other sport. And say what you will of George Will, he's one of the more intelligent and rational columnists out there, and would certainly be in good philosophical company on these pages.

Warty|8.14.08 @ 5:30PM|#

Bullshit. Baseball objectively sucks.

|8.14.08 @ 6:10PM|#

Only 6 posts to Godwin. Not a record (on this blog, the posts sometime Godwin themselves), but not bad.

|8.14.08 @ 6:11PM|#

You mean, the Japanese aren't commies? I'm going to have to think about this.

Its hard to tell, what with that whole inscrutability thing they have going on.

|8.14.08 @ 10:10PM|#

(As Don Baylor and a thousand ex-ballplayers have taught us, baseball memory can be a tricky thing.)

Baylor might not be the best person to refer to when it comes to something like memory.

|8.14.08 @ 11:44PM|#

Great game. I was there too, and what stuck in my mind was that the Japanese squashed an American rally by delays -- changing pitchers, letting him warm up on the mound, etc. Just like REAL American Big League teams. It was awesomely professional, and left me with the nice warm feeling that the Japanese had totally earned their victory. I still feel that way, twenty some years later.

Don't recall that it changed my politics in the slightest....

|8.15.08 @ 3:11AM|#

Why is baseball the medium through which all life lessons are learned? If I learned anything, its that working hard wont necessarily make your dreams come true, especially if you cant hit the fucking curve ball. Maybe being fully cognizant of bitter reality is what drew me away from modern conservatism. Thanks baseball!
Who am I kidding, I was pretty much a neocon until Ron Paul came along, who if you think about it, was pretty much the reasonable Japan fan that was being pelted with Hot dog wrappers at the debates.

robc|8.15.08 @ 10:32AM|#

Warren,

I would point out that Im a big baseball fan if it would help, except that I pretty much acknowledge that Im a self-centered conceited dork.

robc|8.15.08 @ 10:34AM|#

Voros,

You have seen the Krusty burger parody of the olympics giveaway on the Simpson's havent you?

Krusty has them intentionally only put in events that communists are good at. Oops.

robc|8.15.08 @ 10:43AM|#

Accountant: [Krusty finishes filming a commercial for his 1984 Krusty Burger Olympic Contest] Great spot, K.C!
Krusty the Clown: Put a sock in it, Preppy! How much are these free burgers gonna cost me?
Accountant: Not to worry, Mr. K, we rigged the cards. They're all events the Communists never lose!
Krusty the Clown: I like, I like!
Assistant: [handing Krusty a piece of paper] This just came over the wires, Big K!
Krusty the Clown: [reading] Uh-huh... Soviet boycott... U.S. unopposed in most events... how does this affect our giveaway?
Accountant: [puches up the numbers on his calculator] You personally stand to lose $44 million.
Krusty the Clown: [cries loudly] Oy!

---

Krusty the Clown: [on TV, smoking and crying] You people are pigs! I, personally, am going to spit in every fiftieth burger!
Homer: [watching] I like those odds.

|8.15.08 @ 1:09PM|#

At first glance, calling the Japanese (or pro-Japanese) "commies" is absurd. But they do tend to have a very collectivist social disposition, and they are mercantilists with an obscene amount of interpenetration between corporations and the state.

(Or at least that was the impression I got, last time I thought about it much. Which was probably around 1985, when the Japanese seemed scary and poised to take over the world as corporate juggernauts. Yes, I also read Neuromancer.)

So, maybe not so absurd. Maybe less so than appending the "fascist" label to many of the people who get so tagged today.

will|8.15.08 @ 10:44PM|#

Stevo,
If we assume "fascist" to mean a massive intermingling of government and private bodies, then the Japanese (and, more relevantly, the Chinese) economic systems are definitely fascist or fascist-leaning. If you also add hardcore nationalism as a precondition, then it still works pretty well for China. Not so sure about Japan. Judging by their Japanimation movies and cartoons, it would seem that the modern Japanese ideal is the white American.

Susan Kitchens|8.21.08 @ 2:24AM|#

Brings back memories. In 1984, I ushered at Santa Anita (equestrian events), dated a Fijian swimmer, went to closing ceremonies.... and I just so happened to go to a Dodger's game this past Saturday. What you say is all too vivid.