# Baseball—A Sport explained — Poetry

> Chapter companion for Poetry by Ring Lardner.

## What happens

A satirical poem criticizing the commercialization of baseball, contrasting the ideal of playing for fun with the reality of players and magnates motivated by money.

## Themes in this chapter

### Money and Materialism

The poem critiques the greed of players and magnates, suggesting that financial motives corrupt the purity of the sport.

### Humor and Satire

Uses ironic contrasts and a playful rhyme scheme to mock the hypocrisy in baseball's commercialized culture.

## Key lines

> Players who jump for the dough, Bandits and crooks, ev’ry one. Baseball’s a pleasure, you know. Players should play for the fun.

Players who chase money are like thieves, but baseball is meant to be enjoyed for its own sake.

_Highlights the central irony between the ideal of amateur joy and the reality of financial temptation._

> Magnates don’t care for the mon’. They can’t be tempted with gold. They’re in the game for the fun⁠— That’s why Collins was sold

Team owners claim to be above money, yet they sell players like Collins, exposing their hypocrisy.

_Satirizes the owners' disingenuous stance, using the sale of a player as evidence of their true priorities._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_19_se/chapters/baseball-a-sport
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_19_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_19_se/chapters