It’s popular now, if people are part of an interest group or community, to call that group a “nation.”
The first one I learned of was the Red Sox Nation. I recently learned from a TV broadcast that there is a Penn State Nation, too.
Maybe the people interested in baseball should call themselves a nation. They could include members of SABR and NINE, some people in NASSH, some in the Hall of Fame, those who belong to the Baseball Reliquary, and other people I probably forgot. We could call ourselves The Baseball Nation, and we would welcome scholars, fervent fans, students of the game, and lovers of the game.
Yay for The Baseball Nation!
Oh, and players of the game.
Oops, perhaps not, because the men players wouldn’t accept the women players as part of The Baseball Nation. In fact, most men players seem not to recognize the existence of women players. I get the impression that, as far as men players are concerned, there’s no such thing as a woman player. There are women fans, and even a few women scholars, but not women players.
I think I’ll forget the whole idea. The Baseball Nation that leaves out a whole section of the group is a nation I wouldn’t want to belong to. I would have to secede.