The decline of a national pastime

Andrew Mell
Western Herald

As the Yankees celebrate their unprecedented 27th World Series championship, baseball is struggling in an era of drug abuse, declining television ratings, and a loss of identity.

When our parents’ generation was growing up, baseball was the national pastime and whether it be by radio or by television, the country couldn’t get enough. Children grew up playing the game and dreaming of making the big leagues; every nickel was saved for a pack of cards, and baseball players were national heroes.

Even non-fans know names like Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, and many others, but who are their modern day equivalencies? Alex Rodriguez, arguably the best player in the game, may not even be a household name. If he is, chances are it’s only because of his steroid use, or because he’s dating Kate Hudson.

Recently retired Barry Bonds is also only known outside of baseball fandom for his steroid use and the controversy that has surrounded it; most people have probably never heard of Albert Pujols, and Derek Jeter is only loved in New York (and his hometown of Kalamazoo).

Baseball, which was something of a religion all through the early and mid 1900’s, continued to thrive into the ‘70s and ‘80s and may have met its demise in 1994 when the players union went on strike midway through the season cancelling the post season including the World Series.

In 1995 fans protested, but eventually returned to the stadiums and their televisions; however the feel was different and baseball was now scarred. Unbeknownst until nearly a decade later, the steroid era also began to gain momentum and once unearthed in the early 2000s baseball once again took quite a hit.

There once was a time where discovering that a player had used steroids caused something of a mass panic and a sense of betrayal from the public, but accusations and admissions became so frequent, we have seemingly become immune to the news. Perception may even be something along the lines of who didn’t use steroids?

Mix in the fact that our country is currently going through an ADD phase and baseball simply is not fast enough, violent enough, or intense enough (possibly also why soccer has never really caught on), and you’ve got the perfect mix for baseball to easily fall behind the other major sports in terms of popularity.

With all of the negativity surrounding the sport, and the Yankees buying the World Series (how boring, statistically they should win every year), baseball needed a good story, and it got one, from a Yankee.

Imagine winning a world championship, being at the pinnacle of your profession; the emotions and intensity of such success would undoubtedly be overwhelming. For Yankees manager Joe Girardi the emotions probably held such intensities, but he didn’t allow himself to forget who he was: a human being.

Hours after winning the World Series, Girardi was driving home from the stadium; it was late, he was exuberant, on top of the world, and probably a little bit tired. He drove through a police checkpoint and was congratulated by the officers.

A little further down the road he came upon a wrecked car sitting precariously in the middle of a blind curve. According to reports, he parked his car on the shoulder of the road, crossed multiple lanes of New York traffic, and helped to assist the woman who had crashed out of her car and to safety.

The police arrived a short time later and Girardi left them to do their jobs and continued on his way.

In a time of prima donnas consuming most of the sports world, show biz world, and most other prominent professions, it seems almost unfathomable that one of them would go out of their way to help someone in immediate danger.

Many of us wouldn’t even stop in a similar situation.

Joe Girardi, World Champion New York Yankees manager, is humble enough to help an average Joe (no pun intended) on the side of the road. Hopefully this is a boost in the arm for a society that seems to be getting more individualistic by the day, and for a sport that has lost much of its glory.

Andrew Mell, a Western Herald opinion columnist, is a senior majoring in aviation, and can be reached via e-mail at melltimejr@hotmail.com.

Short URL: http://www.westernherald.com/?p=11583

Posted by heraldstaff on Nov 9 2009. Filed under Editorial, Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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