Baseball as civic therapy

In deindustrialized cities, longstanding sports franchises and their rituals (season openers, radio broadcasts, tailgates) function like therapeutic civic institutions: they provide continuity, intergenerational belonging, and informal psychosocial support when churches, factories, and local media decline. That role shapes local politics, economic investments, and how residents interpret urban decline or revival. — Recognizing sports as a substitute civic infrastructure reframes urban policy and political outreach: investment or neglect of local teams and media has consequences for social cohesion and civic capacity.