The Storytellers

This chapter focuses on the significance of the storytellers. Through them, the baseball creed, the elevated national status of baseball, the tale of Branch Rickey and the desegregation of the game, the power and benevolence of the owners, and the uniquely American glory of the underdog all received confirmation as the righteousness of these tales seeped into the national consciousness. For more than a century baseball has been sold to the American public as much more than simply an athletic contest. For this, MLB and the media that have covered it—from Henry Chadwick to the present—deserve much of the credit. Together they have spun tales of baseball as America that are believable not so much because they are true, but because they are reaffirming.