Baseball, My Life

Essay by Nelly25mattJunior High, 8th gradeA, October 2004

download word file, 1 pages 3.0

I am an avid baseball fan and I think what interests me the most about baseball is the sport's history. I enjoy the way that much of the game's history is developed through the wealth of statistics and box scores generated by the game itself. For example, the 1998 Major League Baseball season underscores how the game creates excitement through numbers rather than language itself. In 1998, even non-baseball fans got caught up in the drama of Mark McGwire's setting of the single-season record for home runs at 70. One of the important aspects of McGwire setting the record is it gave most North Americans, whether they actually saw the actual event or not, the sense that "they were there."

For me, and I believe many baseball simulators, baseball holds another purpose. Baseball, because of its statistics, allows for past seasons to be recreated through a form of simulation.

However, I believe the real interest in baseball simulations lies not in their re-creation, but in how they allow simulators to transform the "real" past season into an alternate reality. The concept of creating an alternate reality is what drives most of what are called "fantasy" league baseball activists. More importantly, I believe that this need to create an alternate reality from what most human beings perceive is the "real" world is what drives simulations, and this is the thesis of this essay.

In order to prove my thesis I will, first, explore the notion of simulations: what are they and how do they work. Secondly, I will examine how humans interact with simulations. Finally, I will draw some conclusions on what do simulations tell us about ourselves as human beings. In order to examine the concept of simulations I will draw on the work Jean Baudrillard, in his essay...