Description
Societies use a variety of social institutions to repair injuries to their identities after ruptures in their ontological security. The rupture itself might heal, but it leaves behind a scar, a reminder of the injury suffered and survived. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks rocked America’s physical security, the country’s social institutions went to work to reestablish its national sense of ontological security. Major League Baseball took up this objective immediately following the attacks by serving as a unifying social force and by creating stable social routines of scheduled games and end-of-the-season pennant races in the face of national (ontological) security chaos. A consistent presence in American culture, Major League Baseball has served a vital role in observing and commemorating the 9/11 attacks for decades, even as many of its current players were small children on 9/11 (or were even born after the attacks). Focusing on the role of memory and commemoration in American culture’s process of healing and forging ahead, this paper investigates the ways that Major League Baseball has remembered, revered, and crafted an American mythos around 9/11.
