Hi again,
Sez Jim:
>>Yes, baseball is like craft-based capitalism;
So how's cricket different? That's the reference point in this daft
proposition, isn't it? Anyway, it might be true that the US and Japan play
baseball. But the Cubans love it, too, don't they? What's the conclusion
these blokes draw from that.
Sez Chas:
>I think that the phrase "craft-based capitalism" is somewhat contradictory.
>I think a better phrase would be "craft-based commodity exchange." Even
>though professional baseball clearly reflects the class system it thrives
>in (though in surprising ways), the game itself is much more egalitarian
>than say, football. Baseball is egalitarian -- but also individualistic,
>because of the batter vs. pitcher battle which dominates the game.
Cricket has these things in common. Albeit there are two batters in play at
all times, and the bowler's changed every six legitimate deliveries.
Captains/foremen are more important on the fielding side, as he places the
field (contingent on which bowler is bowling to which batter on what sort of
pitch). Still don't see the important differences, though. Geez, it might
just be that those who play cricket didn't get out from under perfidious
Albion soon enough ...
>Football reminds me more of the army -- or of simple cooperation-based
>capitalism, with its hierarchy and its production process, which works more
>in parallel (everyone doing a different task, all at the same time) rather
>than in sequence (like an assembly line or a bucket-brigade).
Taylorism might be an even more apposite term, no? Now that the boss
(coach) is in constant mike-contact with the almost always white superstar
foreman (quarter back) - that last bit is right, isn't it?.
>How about baseball is a combination of proletarians ( the batter with the
bat as a tool makes runs by hitting the ball) and peasants who are out in
the field. But contradictorily the pitcher is also the capitalist who sets
the process in motion with the pitch. The batter and the pitcher are in
class conflict.
Too far for me ... looks more like a pair of proles being competitive in
that 'labour market' thingy. Their mutual alienation played out on behalf
of that between the competing bosses. After all, the pitcher gets sacked
without notice if the batters do too well, no?
Yours avoiding work ...
Rob.
