Promises of Inclusion

In Underworld, the fan plays an important part.  There is Nick Shay, who’s narration pulls us back and forth between future and present.  There is one location about his discussion of the thirty-four thousand dollar ball that is comparable to the situation the Dodgers currently find themselves in.  The Dodgers are not trying to sell off old memorabilia, but instead the team.  The team looks to go the way Chapter 11, but there seemed to be a savior, by the name of Josh Macciello.  Macciello, seemingly just an avid fan of the Dodgers had the sports world buzzing by proposing to put forward the billions needed to bring the Dodgers back from death.  This turned out to be a hoax, Macciello never attained the assets needed to help the Dodgers, but this leads to an even more important question of Money and the Fan. 

Being a fan I would say that we should spend all this money on all star players, when that is just completely unfeasible, but all I can do is purchase memorabilia to satisfy my fandom.  In Underworld, the Thirty-Four thousand dollar ball represents every fans dream, to own a part of your teams history.  Having this history gives a nostalgic connection to the teams we so feel so apart of.  But according to BBTF, the media ate Macciello’s story up, there is a fan, supposedly with the means, to help be a true part of the history of his team.  The problem was that all of these outlets, including ESPN took this at face value, and only Gene Maddaus from LA Weekly dug any further.  The question of money, media and fans all add to the mysticism that the game creates.  The nostalgic aspect of the ball, or the team is a step to try and feel involved in an organization that you were previously on the outskirts of.  The fan’s search for memorabilia, and team inclusion, is continuing the myth that we have been talking about all semester.  I think that these myths rely on minor fan inclusion, obviously, it is not wise to have fans run the organization, but by providing a partially opaque barrier into the history and inner-workings of the organization fans continue to believe that they are part of something more than the list of season ticket owners.

            In conjuncture to the need to feel inclusion, the media facilitates what truly includes a fan into the history of the organization.  In Underworld, we have Russ Hodges exciting account of the game, leading to a large price for the ball which made the excitement.  Then there are the baseball cards, why would a piece of paper be so expensive, because we say they are, because that player did something to get noticed by the media, and therefore become noticed by the fans.  Fan inclusion relies on the media painting these pictures of players and organizations that would make the item, whether it is a ball or a card, become valuable beyond the fifty cent ball or the ten cent card.

BBTF