Football Red Baseball Green
The True American Passion Throughout the history of America, has always been one thing that all Americans find enjoyable: sporting events. Not only are these events enjoyable, but also an important part of our society. Murray Ross explains the importance of sports in his essay “Football Red and Baseball Green” in order to explain why these two sports are such a large part of the American way of life. Ross explains the appeals of two different national pastimes by using the overall structure and style and thru comparing and contrasting baseball, the tranquil appeal, and football, the passionate appeal. In his writing, Ross uses many devices to relate the subject to the everyday reader. One of the most effective ways that Ross helps the audience relate to the subject matter is writing with a tone that many of the readers also feel for the sports. This tone portrays awe and genuine passion for both baseball and football. Ross is the speaker in the essay and being the speaker helps him express his opinions in the same way that the audience would express theirs. He begins the essay with a very interesting topic sentence that easily grabs the attention of the audience. He compares interest in the first moon landing, a onetime occurrence, to the Super bowl, an annual event. He then states his thesis, “I am especially interested in baseball and football because they are so popular and uniquely American; they began here and unlike basketball they have not been widely exported. Thus whatever can be said, mythically, about these games would seem to apply to our culture.” The body of the essay begins with baseball, and describes how Americans invented it during the Industrial Revolution. He describes the allusions that baseball has to society and then begins to make points about football stars and comparing them with baseball heroes. He contrasts many different parts of baseball and football. Finally, he describes football’s characteristics and ends with a comparison of