Sportswriting and American cultural values: The 1984 Chicago cubs

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Abstract
This essay looks at the American cultural values reflected in the institution of sport as articulated in the medium of sportswriting. Specifically, we examine the values displayed in baseball as expressed in sportswriting about the 1984 Chicago Cubs. We identify six sets of cultural themes—each composed of oppositional value orientations—including winning and losing, tradition and change, teamwork and individualism, work and play, youth and experience, and logic and luck. We examine the ways in which sportswriters use these themes as interpretive schema for describing and explaining the 1984 Chicago Cubs and conclude that sportswriting not only displays these cultural values but provides a vehicle through which pervasive but conflicting cultural values can be integrated.

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