Where have all the soldiers gone? Watching baseball...

What is always very strange at American sports events is the constant mentioning of the armed forces serving their time in foreign countries. Just this weekend while watching St Louis play against Philadelphia or The Red Sox vs the Padres there was always at least one soldier in the picture at some point of the game. In St Louis it was a veteran who proposed to his girlfriend before the match and was interviewed at some point during the game. Of course he has all the right to be a happy man, but when asked if he liked his stay in Iraq he replied that it was agreat time and that he would to it again without a second thought. The commentators were thrilled and grateful and thanked every soldier who was or is serving his or her country in some other place across the globe. I mean, how naive can one be. Serving the country and defending the freedom. Sounds a lot like the usual propaganda. Maybe it was like that because the game was shown on Fox Sports Network. Who knows...

The same picture in San Diego where what looked like a complete batallion was greeted by the audience before the game. Here the commentators were a lot more laid back although they also tried to praise the efforts of the soldiers fighting for freedom, blah blah blah.

Baseball seems to be a very conservative game and just like the NASCAR dads the baseball audience might be a force to be reckoned wwith when it comes to political decisions. Perhaps it's just me who is a caught off guard a little bit. But to me it would look strange that, when watching a football match on TV, the commercials would say "This programme is brought to you by the Bundeswehr", just as it is done with the marines at baseball coverage.