Know Your Dads

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When we taped the baseball culture episode of last week, we tried to answer a question from a listener about why baseball feels like such a dad sport. We came up with a bunch of theories, which you can listen to here, but my theory is that baseball viewing evokes a particular sort of dadness: a sit-in-the-old-recliner-by-yourself-with-the-AM-radio-on Dad, which is to say, a chill Dad, a contemplative Dad, a Dad who’s always trying to get you to sit there with him.

Baseball is not a sport of aggression or frenzy, and neither, at least stereotypically, are its fans. Baseball is also historically accessible: unlike football or basketball, a ticket in the nosebleeds during the regular season costs less than going out for pizza. Baseball is an endurance sport for fans: the season lasts forfuckingever but manages to combine the excitement of spring, the endless nights of summer, and the wistfulness of fall, and invites you to appreciate them all, the way a Dad would tell you to come watch the thunderstorm with him, or take a look at that cool tree looking its leaves, or ask anyone and everyone: can’t you feel Spring in the air?

Baseball Dad is channeling the spirit at the heart of Dad Magazine, which Jaya Saxena and Mattie Lubchansky imagined so vividly for The Toast (RIP, even its archives) more than a decade ago:

See also:

The Baseball Dad, at least how we’re conceiving of him here, is a Good Dad: caring but not controlling, concerned but not terrified. He likes gadgets but isn’t obsessed. He loves a deal. He’s not rich. He’s present. He adores his kids and is kind to his wife or ex-wife or husband (gay dads are often but not always good dads). His masculinity is not rigid, is not anxious, and is not obsessed with self-replication. He is often stubborn but not intractable; Good Dads have been known to change their minds, especially about social issues.

Good Dads get annoyed by things but very rarely