{"title":"America's Favorite Pastime","description":"\u003cp\u003eBaseball is called America's favorite pastime. A pastime is something you do regularly, for pleasure. By that definition the United States has a second one: it has been at war somewhere for the overwhelming majority of its history, and for nearly every year of the last quarter century.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAmerica's Favorite Pastime\u003c\/strong\u003e holds those two habits against each other. Working in sculpture, assemblage, mixed media, video, and photography, Damon DeWitt uses the objects of the game — the ball, the bat, the pin — to address the continuous combat deployment of America's Armed Forces and the cost carried by the people who serve.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe overlap is not invented. The military has borrowed the sport's vocabulary and its motion for eighty years, from the WWII BEANO T-13 grenade engineered to the dimensions of a baseball to the M67 that soldiers still call the baseball grenade. This series takes the borrowing seriously and asks what it costs.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"suicide-squeeze","title":"Suicide Squeeze","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSuicide Squeeze\u003c\/strong\u003e — Assemblage: 20 Game-Used Broken MLB Baseball Bats\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEvery day in the United States it is estimated that 20 U.S. Veterans take their own lives. This alarming and saddening statistic made headlines in the news around the 4th of July in 2016. Independence Day. A time in America when we come together to celebrate, enjoy leisure time, in the form of a backyard BBQ and a baseball game.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe U.S. soldier and the baseball bat are symbols of strength. War and baseball are America's favorite pastimes. The suicide squeeze is the most dangerous play in baseball. To me, the rate at which veterans are taking their own lives is the most dangerous threat to the men and women who signed up to protect our freedom. We cannot abandon our at-risk veterans like discarded broken bats in the dugout.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMedium: Assemblage — 20 game-used broken MLB baseball bats\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDimensions: True to size\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSeries: America's Favorite Pastime\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eYear: 2016\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eArtist: Damon DeWitt\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAvailability: Original — 1 of 1\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAll proceeds go to \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/mission22.com\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eMission 22\u003c\/a\u003e, a nonprofit dedicated to ending veteran suicide.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"damondewitt.com","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44871611711581,"sku":null,"price":5000.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0270\/1466\/0201\/files\/DSCF8586_0341fde1-29bd-4fd0-b0b6-0e38ba256b80.jpg?v=1786035046"},{"product_id":"beano-balling","title":"Beano Balling","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBeano Balling\u003c\/strong\u003e — Assemblage: Baseball, Grenade Pin\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn September 1943 the Office of Strategic Services — the agency that would become the CIA — began developing a hand grenade built to the dimensions of a regulation baseball. Working with the Army Ordnance Department and Eastman Kodak, they introduced the T-13 in early 1944 and nicknamed it the BEANO, after the beanball. The logic was straightforward: every young American man already knew how to throw one. The military did not need to teach the motion. It only needed to change what was in the hand.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe BEANO was reportedly issued to troops staging for Normandy and pulled back after premature detonations. Production was suspended in March 1945 and the surviving stock was ordered destroyed. Almost none remain.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eBeano Balling\u003c\/em\u003e puts the object back where it started. A baseball, pinned. The pin is the only thing standing between a game and a detonation, and the release is identical either way — the grip, the wind-up, the follow-through. A pastime is what a country does regularly for pleasure. This piece asks what it means that ours was accurate enough to be issued as ordnance.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eMedium: Assemblage — baseball, grenade pin\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDimensions: True to size\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSeries: America's Favorite Pastime\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eYear: 2016\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eArtist: Damon DeWitt\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAvailability: Original — 1 of 1\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e","brand":"damondewitt.com","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44871620427869,"sku":null,"price":1500.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0270\/1466\/0201\/files\/IMG-7478.png?v=1786035581"}],"url":"https:\/\/damondewitt.com\/collections\/americas-favorite-pastime.oembed","provider":"damondewitt.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}