Baseball Or Soccer By David Brooks Summary

In his article “Baseball or Soccer?”, David Brooks writes that people tend to imitate the actions of the peers they reside with, however we are now thinking more individually by being more involved with social networks. David Brooks starts by mentioning the comparison of baseball and soccer, stating that baseball is a team sport, but made up of more individual attributes. While soccer is more of an intrinsic individual sport with the help of your teammates. He quotes, “People with vast acquaintances have more jobs than people with fewer but deeper friendships.” We are playing soccer not baseball. The author's primary purpose of this article is referential writing, with a topic of an interpretive focus. David Brooks is focusing on the main topic of “people behaviors” by giving different ideas as to why the general population is losing the

The author sets up the article by using alternation of detail of how baseball and soccer are both team sports. David Brooks quotes Critchley, “Soccer is a collective game, a team game, and everyone has to play the part that has been assigned to them.“ Meaning that baseball being more individually efficacious than the other affects the people tend to become less team activities. Playing sports such as soccer helps you understand your position spatially, positionally and intellectually.
Furthermore, the next pattern in use throughout the article is the analogy pattern. For example, Brooks begins to use metaphors to help him interpret why soccer is more like life than baseball. As quoted, “Most of us spend our days thinking we are playing baseball, but we are really playing soccer. We think we individually choose what career path to take, whom to socialize with, what views to hold. But, in fact, those decisions are shaped by the networks of people around us more than we dare recognize.” Brooks explains Life should be more like soccer in the reality we live