I served in the military, so I know how hard people in uniform work and how proud they are. They take risks few civilian jobs carry, so the honor they get at ballparks is not misplaced. But it is excessive and selective.
It is excessive because other professions that serve get so little of it. Each Major League Baseball team plays 81 home games. I would give at least half of those to honoring doctors, nurses, teachers, firefighters, police, and clergy. They work tireless hours for the rest of us and rarely get the same honor.
It is selective because easy reverence skips how troops are used. James Fallows made that case in “The Tragedy of the American Military”: a public that reveres the troops pays little attention to their wars. Some of the cheering was even bought. From 2012 to 2015 the Pentagon paid dozens of pro teams, ten in baseball, for those tributes.
My criticism starts with the military-industrial complex and with Smedley Butler, a Marine general who called war a racket. The military is not misused all the time. But since 2001, too many operations seem aimed at foreign affairs with little bearing on everyday Americans, especially the working-class fan watching the game.
Veterans also get forgotten, most of all their health. It took a comedian, Jon Stewart, to help pass the PACT Act for veterans sickened by burn pits. As far as I can find, no ballpark has honored him. One should.