The Constants

Author: Doug Jordan, Ph.D.

Publication: MUSE: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture

Abstract:
Wisdom has many fathers. Ancient Greek philosophy is an important source of wisdom that is the foundation for much of Western civilization. One of those Greek philosophers was Heraclitus. He argued that all of life is constantly in flux and therefore that change is the only true constant. Over 2000 years later in the 1989 film Field of Dreams, James Earl Jones says that in spite of the enormous changes that have taken place in America over the past 150 years, that baseball has been the constant that has tied generations and the country together. The purpose of this essay is to examine these two contradictory ideas through the life of a sixty-one-year-old, lifelong baseball fan. And although the details of my life and my baseball experiences will be different from anyone else’s, I believe that the theme of baseball being a constant through the changes in a person’s life will resonate with all baseball fans. This is not to say that the game itself hasn’t changed over the last 50 years. It has, dramatically. But it is a constant, often comforting, presence in our lives.