'm an Australian, and I freely admit that much of our national appreciation for sports was born of our early oppression as a convict working class under British military rule. We colonials would never be good enough for the ruling aristocracy in the political or social sense, but we could be anyone’s equal in sports. Sport is our chance to prove we are good enough, a chance to show the world our isolated and infant democracy has value as a place of fair and honest effort to excel. That is why we treasure amateur sports above all.

Perhaps that heritage is also why, as an outsider, I can look at the game of baseball, its origins, traditions, and particularly its rules, and read in them the hopes and aspirations of young America. In his piece "Why Baseball," John Thorn declares:

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