Is Politics Baseball, or Is Baseball Politics?

by Karl Kurtz

Two weeks ago at a meeting of the State Government Affairs Council in Chicago, I ran into an old friend of mine from Ohio, Alan Smith, a long ago Ohio legislative staffer who now lobbies for Ohio Casualty Insurance Group.  The first thing Alan said to me was, "Is politics baseball, or is baseball politics?"  He was reminding me that 15 years ago I had written an essay for Governing magazine comparing state legislative life to baseball.

Curious about  the article, I went to Governing's web site and was surprised to find that my commentary in the March 1992 issue is available online. So in honor of the opening of baseball season this week, I thought I would dust it off and offer it to The Thicket readers here.

Soon after this article was published, I showed it to an English professor friend.  She said, "I enjoyed reading this, but the trouble is that baseball is the universal metaphor for everything in American life."  She was right, but I hope that this piece might still entertain you in this time of year when everything is once again right with America because baseball is being played in the land (and most legislatures are still in session).

[Photo by WineGal, courtesy of Flickr]