As evident by the occurrences around the world today, nothing on mother-earth stays the same for too long. Friends become enemies, enemies become friends, children grow, the elderly shrink, companies close down while new ones open up to the public.
Yet humans – Americans especially – require some sort of clear and present constant. We need to know that special something, whatever it may be, will always be there and will never change in a million years no matter how many wars are fought or how bad the economy is doing.
Out of the few such unchanged examples in our culture still alive, the game of baseball is recognized as one of them.
Whether you’re nine or eighty-nine, that majestic golden diamond with the pearly white bases is the icon of American summers, nostalgically reminding adults of their cheerful youths mimicking their favorite ballplayers, and also motivating today’s youngsters to slip on a glove and partake in the tradition. It is where glorious, nine-inning bouts between two teams of nine players that have given birth to names like Ruth, Gehrig, Mantle, Williams, Mays, Robinson, Berra, and Clemente are played.
However, much has happened since the grand old Babe played the game back in his day. The pitcher-friendly parks of yesteryear have shrunk significantly in order to make way for larger audiences and more crowd-pleasing long balls. The rough cowhides of the ‘50s and ‘60s are starting to resemble the rubber stickballs of Brooklyn. New waves of fans prefer an offensive bombardment by a team rather than witnessing a nail-biting pitcher’s duel ending in a final score of 2-1.
These, however, are not the only reasons for the development of one of baseball’s most jaw-dropping changes, that of the incredibly high amount of home run balls exiting stages right, left, and center over the past fifteen seasons.
Call them what you wish – dietary supplements, vitamins, or proteins –
medical enhancements have completely revolutionized the game of baseball both on
the field and on television screens across the world.
For some hitters, mindsets have shifted from searching for a way to help the team as much as possible to deciding which dance move to perform while watching the ball sail 450 feet over the wall. From the ever-jolly Sammy Sosa, whose quick and automatic hop out of the batter’s box seems to even appear on CNN News, to Barry Bonds’ basking, slow stare over the right field wall every time he splashes a ball into McCovey Cove, Major League Baseball’s biggest stars and role models are giving their young fans all across the globe the false goal of self-promotion.
For children, it is not at all difficult to influence their way of approaching a
game. They witness first-hand how incredibly successful Sosa and Bonds are
performing and logically do anything and everything they see on the glossy
exterior – dancing, pointing, smiling, hopping – in order to emulate them.
This new hurricane of offensive demand and personal glory seems to be pushing aside some of the more primary beauties of the game and presenting some drastic concerns for its future.
Going are the days of
twenty-five-plus game winners pitching the nine innings of a game and asking for
the ball again the next day. Going are the simple strategies and fundamentals
like sacrifice bunting, hitting a ball to the left side of the field with a
runner in scoring position, and running out ground balls fully and quickly. And
now, are the expectations for our youth to play baseball as it once was – and
still should be – played, with heart, passion, humbleness and a gluttonous
desire to be named victor and not cover model of a Sports Illustrated issue.
The latest story to hit Broadway
baseball is the steroids controversy.
“I would say that about 85 percent of major-leaguers have used steroids,”
declared Canseco in an interview to a shocked audience.
“About 50 percent of all baseball professionals have used steroids,”
commented Caminiti.
Caminiti has made the fact that he himself also used steroids abundantly clear.
“At first I felt like a cheater. But I looked around and everyone was doing
it,” he said.
Now that the stars themselves have exposed the skeleton of M.L.B’s closet, the
next question is what will happen to the legitimacy of any outstanding
achievement – setting a stolen base or home run record, winning thirty games
– now that the scandal has been released, making every player a suspect of
stuffing pills.
The fact that two recently retired professional greats like Canseco and Caminiti
have come out and tarnished their own personal accomplishments by making such
declarations about drug use is a tragic sight to see.
The rational argument for using such drugs is summed up rather frankly by Los
Angeles Dodgers’ catcher, Paul Lo Duca.
“If
you’re battling for a job and the guy your battling with is using steroids,
then maybe you say ‘ Hey, to compete, I need to use steroids because he’s
using them.’ Don’t get me wrong. I don’t condone it. But it’s a tough
situation. It’s really all about survival for some guys.”
Such a scandal, one that can be incredibly damaging for baseball in the future
besides sky-rocketed player’s salaries, is now a factor for survival in the
game. No longer does a player of a productive caliber need to master talent,
discipline, and love of baseball to be offered a job in the big leagues. Now, he
also needs to produce some sort of artificial muscle – and fast.
If Major League Baseball does not form some sort of steroid inspection team, a
group of professionals randomly calling players to be examined for illegal
enhancers, then the future of the game we love so dearly will be tarnished
significantly. Every record that will be broken, every achievement reached will
never have the historic meaning it did in earlier eras.
Even with the current struggle with our economy, the loss of many jobs, and our war in Iraq, the day baseball cannot be trusted to be fair, then you know you have a problem.
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