The Randomness of Love and Baseball :: A Kind of Love Sports Athletics Essays

The Randomness of Love and Baseball Generally the terms love, baseball, immigration, and poetry are not mentioned within the same text. However, according to Andrei Codrescu, author of the essay â€Å"A Kind of Love†, all these subjects are related. The only problem is that Codrescu fails to make these connections obvious to his audience. He also fails in making the purpose of his essay known and therefore is unsuccessful in whatever goal he intended. Codrescu’s essay fails because of its misuse of pathos, its overbearing connotative language and, simply, its random nature. â€Å"A Kind of Love† starts off as the title suggests it might. Codrescu talks about how there are many different kinds of love and how his love for baseball fits into one of these categories. He then goes on a sporadic journey discussing several issues that have no logical connection to each other. He talks about his struggle as an immigrant to get his citizenship. Then he jumps to how baseball is extremely literary and can be compared to poetry. Then, to even more random issues such as the history of baseball, the language of the game, and he even goes as far as proclaiming a sense of sexuality in baseball. There is absolutely no flow to Codrescu’s writing and his loose ends do nothing but ensure that there will be no tying together of his random thoughts. Codrescu uses an over bearing amount of connotative language in his essay, which makes knowing exactly what he means hard to understand. He uses several examples of famous writers, philosophers, and even places. Dawson, Malamud, Edgar Allan Poe, and Freud, were just some of these famous people who were mentioned. Codrescu assumes that everyone in his audience is aware and knowledgeable on every subject he mentions, which in most cases is an unrealistic assumption on his behalf. He uses words that relate to a deeper, symbolic meaning from personal emotional associations so much that the reader becomes lost in translation. There is no doubt that Codrescu uses the strategy of pathos to appeal to his audience. He starts this off very well by giving very real and vivid descriptions of what it was like for him to witness his first baseball game. He recalls where the game was played, when it was played and who was playing. He also remembers sitting there, in the stands, knowing nothing about the game and not even being able to tell who was scoring and when.