Exclusive: There Used to Be a Country


Author: Gabriel Garnica

Date Published: 2007-10-10


 

 

Take me out to the ball game! Remember when Mom, hotdogs and apple pie were wholesome symbols treasured by Americans unafraid to show love for country? FSM Contributing Editor Gabriel Garnica does. Here, he shares his memories of that time and place, and his hopes that we may someday be able to recreate the magic.

 

There Used to Be a Country

 

By Gabriel Garnica

 

I am a big Sinatra fan. Being a fan does not mean that I endorse everything he ever did or how he may sometimes have acted or treated people. No, being a fan means I accept that he, like all of us, was human with virtues and faults. I will tell you that I was glad to read that while Frank was an avid supporter of JFK, he was supporting Ronald Reagan by the ‘70s. That tells me that his old blue eyes could see what the Democrat Party had become. As I listen to his beautiful songs late at night, I am haunted by lyrics which remind us of what America has become and what it may have lost forever. 

 

There Used To Be a Ballpark

 

Right around the time when he began supporting Ronald Reagan, Sinatra recorded a song by the above title, written by Joe Raposo, that is a haunting ode to what used to be. It begins telling us of a warmer, brighter time filled with laughter and cheer, patriotism and laughter and beer as people played their crazy game “with a joy I’d never seen”. The second part of the song, however, laments what has happened since and how things have changed.

 

Referring to the old ballpark that once was, Sinatra laments that “now the children try to find it, and they can’t believe their eyes ‘cause the old team just isn’t playing, and the new team hardly tries.” Isn’t that how our once proud and glorious nation has become? Is it not like an old ballpark with distant memories of optimism and dreams combined with dedication and determination to find success through hard work?

 

Did we not once have a nation where everybody played hard, loved the game and respected the game’s past? Didn’t the uniforms matter more than they do now, and didn’t the fans show a lot more loyalty and unity? Didn’t we stand up for the National Anthem with our hats off and our hand on our chest? Didn’t the flag wave proudly while we worked hard to represent our side well?

 

The ballpark is our nation, and the game is creating and living the American Dream. We used to bring our family, follow the rules and play hard with no excuses. Now we would not want our kids to see half of what goes on in the ballpark, liberals tell us to ignore the rules and these same people encourage us to whine, seek handouts and play victims when things go wrong. Why pay for the seat when you can sneak into the stadium and get free beer and hotdogs? Why play hard to win when you can slide and give excuses to lose? Why even cheer for your team when you betray your team at every turn or do not care who wins? 

 

People used to come to this game of the American Dream as fans cheering for their side to win. Now half of them come to root for the other team, mock the home team, boo or get drunk. Yes, there used to be a ballpark, a nation, right here. It is being replaced by something else: something false, something superficial. 

 

Different Rules, Different Uniforms and Different Fans

 

Long ago people played by the rules and honored others who did. They admired fair play and looked up to nice guys, even if they did sometimes finish last. There were clear winners and those who did not win were not allowed to give excuses. It was accepted that the penalty for not winning was not winning and that the only remedy was to work harder to try and win the next time.

 

We did not spend half our time worrying about hurting everyone’s feelings or rubbing their self-esteem the wrong way. We were not afraid to get our uniforms dirty or fail trying to do our best.

Speaking of uniforms, we were proud of the ones we wore and loyal to their colors. We could play fair but never forget to fight for our causes without surrendering our integrity or honor.

 

The fans lived for their teams, but as passionate supporters and not selfish, arrogant and demanding spoiled brats looking for strokes from overpaid performers. It was about love of the game and not money. People were expected to behave like decent human beings and called out when they forgot that expectation.

 

Today the rules are a joke – mocked about as frequently as excuses are whined. Personal responsibility is ridiculed as some pathetic vestige of a clueless past where people were too stupid or simple-minded to find the easy way out. Winning has been demonized to the point of becoming some curse or label of asinine stupidity. In fact, losing is the new idol, embellished with victim status or the chance to blame or spew pathetic rationalizations of hanging chads and the fanciful hypocrisy of stolen election fiction.

 

Think of the sentence that reads, “_______used to be about________but now they are about_________” and fill in any group you please, from immigrants to parents to workers to politicians to judges to laws to kingdom come. 

 

The tired and poor huddled masses yearning to breathe free that Emma Lazarus wrote about were hungry for success and eager to work hard to achieve it by respecting the rules and the nation they wanted to join. Schools used to be about teaching children truth and the tools they would need to make a mark in this world. Entertainment used to be about feeding the masses the nourishing spirit that spurred them to greater and nobler heights. Laws used to be about respecting justice, life and this great nation. 

 

That was the old ballpark, and what do we have now?

 

The incoming masses do not want so much to contribute as to take, to respect as to demand and to integrate as to reject. Most people only seek the easy way, free rides and excuses. Schools have become liberal indoctrination centers that feed our young with political junk food over a healthy diet of patriotism, respect, personal responsibility and faith. Entertainment now spews pollution into our minds and souls, rendering ourselves and our young too jaded to see right from wrong and quality from trash. Laws now defend the selfish, the arrogant and the insolent while victimizing the innocent, the powerless and the law-abiding.

 

There used to be a ballpark right here. We can still hear the echoes of past cheers, warm afternoons and patriotic fireworks. Sadly, echoes are increasingly all we have left.

 

Conclusion

 

“There Used To Be a Ball Park,” recorded by Frank Sinatra nearly 40 years ago, is an ode to what used to be and how much it hurts to see it go away. It is an anthem to memories that should never have become memories, but which should still be true today.

 

As painful as those words are, they might at least remind us of how beautifully this country once stood, what it once represented and how noble its basic core truly was. It recalls a time when we had the best ballpark, the place many fans of other teams hoped to join.

 

It would be naïve to imagine that we can get that old ballpark back again, but perhaps we can do as more recent ballparks have done and try to recreate that old feeling again. Before that happens, however, we have to make sure people follow the rules, proudly wear the uniform, salute the flag and remain loyal to the home team. The other day I saw a toddler at a ballpark with his grandfather.  It is up to each of us to make sure that toddlers long for the old ballparks.

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FamilySecurityMatters.org contributing editor Gabriel Garnica, Esq., is a college professor and licensed attorney whose regular commentary also appears on New MediaJournal.us, The Daley Times-Post, and Michnews. He holds a law degree from New York University and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from St. John’s University in New York.

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