EMOTIONALITY IN THE STANDS AND IN THE FIELD: EXPRESSING SELF THROUGH BASEBALL

Abstract

This article discusses two field studies that examined how people enacted their emotions and expressed their identities at the closing of two major league ballparks: Old Comiskey Park, former home of the Chicago White Sox, and Arlington Stadium, former home of the Texas Rangers. The authors conducted observations of and informal interviews with those in attendance (fans at Comiskey, fans and employees at Arlington) at the final series at each ballpark. Despite the differences in the ballparks, the cities, and the types of individuals observed and interviewed, the people studied enacted and expressed similar feelings and emotions about the importance of baseball in their lives and of the places where it is played. In this article, the authors examine several dimensions of ballpark culture and show how the people studied define themselves through baseball. The authors conclude the article with two autobiographical accounts that reveal how we as researchers also define ourselves through baseball in general and through our ballpark ethnographies in particular.