Baseball, Rituals, and the American Dream: An Analysis of the Boston Red Sox’s Response to the Boston Marathon Bombing

Abstract

In April 2013, the Tsarnaev brothers placed two homemade bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. This attack created a need for healing the city’s spirit and the Boston Red Sox played an essential role in the city’s recovery as the team invited victims and first responders to pregame ceremonies throughout the season to participate in ritualistic pregame ceremonies. This thesis examines the Red Sox first home game after the bombing and argues that ritualistic pregame ceremonies craft conditions for performing national citizenship identity by calling upon mythic belief systems to warrant norms of citizenship performance.