ABSTRACT
On November 3, 2015, members of the Kansas City Royals appeared before an estimated 800,000 fans to celebrate their victory over the New York Mets in the World Series of Major League Baseball (MLB). The World Series is baseball's signature media event, and its best-of-seven format supplies multiple opportunities for media rituals to affirm the values presumably inherent to the national pastime. This chapter evaluates the ways that World Series media ritual enacts the myth of American exceptionalism. It attends to broadcast coverage in recent years to identify the ritualized expressions of American exceptionalism. Baseball had become a definitive symbol of national pride and, as the United States found itself drawn into the First World War. Despite the foundational significance of sports writing, it is television and, increasingly, online media, that now largely facilitates the ritual production of baseball mythology. Former MLB Commissioner Bart Giamatti provides one of the signature romantic interpretations of baseball.
