UNDERDOG

Ross Perot: "Life is never more fun than when you're the underdog competing against the giants."

I would be remiss if I didn’t write about the Dodgers second World Series win in as many years. With the highest payroll in baseball ($95M/year more than the Blue Jays) much of the buzz leading up to the World Series was on the topic of the underdog, and so in this blog post I wanted to take the opportunity to explore this concept in greater detail. The idea of the underdog is complex. When we think about famous underdog stories like David and Goliath, it’s natural for most of us—aside from those with a personal stake in the outcome, like Goliath’s friends or family—to sympathize with the one who’s clearly outmatched. Especially if, in a match of intended fair play, one side appears to be equipped to a greater degree than another. Why is this?

​Well, my take is that it comes down to the idea of justice. Justice is what is called a “master signifier.” This means that although you can look up the word in the dictionary, it has no definite meaning. It is a purely visionary concept which one always strives to achieve but can never grasp. You can think of it as something that brings meaning to the world rather than has its own definite meaning. Other examples of master signifiers are truth and love. Poets will forever seek to describe their elusive nature, but luckily, never will. The law is the current distillation of the rules of justice, but this is exactly why the law changes, because, over time, we come to realize where the law, although seeming just, was not just. And so, we arrive at the underdog. The underdog appears when the Libra scale of justice has clearly become unbalanced  - when one side has the upper hand in some way. Using this image, justice always appears on the lower side of the scale - the side of the oppressed. And the oppressor can never be just unless the scales swing and they become the oppressed. This is why Simone Weil claimed that “justice flees from the camp of conquerors,” because if the oppressed happened to overtake the oppressor, they would become the oppressor, and the scale would shift the other way. This is precisely why everyone prefers to think of themselves as the underdog (I mean, I watched the Patriots claim to be the underdog for 20 years while they won 6 super bowls) because, as Camus said, “the king is always evil.” The king lacks a just purpose. The underdog is the only one with the valiant task of removing the boot from their neck, but the master only seeks to hold it there. This gives the underdog a strong purpose, and why the master, although appearing to be happy, or releasing an ecstatic burst upon winning, is typically, in their moment of triumph, more lost of purpose than the underdog. 

We see this in action during Freddy Freeman's interview after winning the greatest prize in baseball. He was asked how it felt to win back-to-back championships. He immediately reframed the answer in the guise of the underdog and referenced the Yankees as three-peat champions, maintaining his status as lower than the Evil Empire.

So, what does the Blue Jays manager, John Schneider, still have on his side after the World Series loss? My claim. Justice. And that's not a bad side to be on. For as MLK said, the universe "bends towards justice."

If you enjoyed this new meditation on the deeper meaning of the game, you’ll love THE ART OF WAR AND BASEBALL!! Check it out here: www.theartofwarandbaseball.com