I remember the baseball season of 1998. I played baseball for eight years, but that season was somehow different. We were caught up in the magic of Major League Baseball and the home run race between Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire. I always have been a Chicago Cubs fan, so I was hoping to see Sosa go all the way and break the Roger Maris record. Of course, as the season went on, Sosa fell behind the St. Louis Cardinals' McGwire. I can still remember it now, playing a tournament in the heat of summer, waiting for the next game to begin and hearing over the loud speaker that Mark McGwire knocked another ball out of the park.
I really looked up to those guys. I loved to play baseball. The smell of the leather ball, the sound of that ball colliding with the glove and the smell of the freshly cut grass – this was the dream. "Field of Dreams" wasn't just a Kevin Costner movie, but more like scripture to the baseball tradition. That year, our team went to a national tournament in Missouri, but didn't fare as well as we could have. The upside of the season's end was the reassuring knowledge that the MLB playoffs were right around the corner.
Looking back on it now, I wonder how I would have reacted to the notion that one of my favorite players, Sammy Sosa, was most likely on steroids. I'm glad no one told me that, because there's one awful thing that the steroid scandal has brought to baseball and that's a victory of cynicism over optimism in the American tradition of summer ball. Sure, entertainment has always been a part of the game – and the lucrative business of baseball has long since been a reality – but a chasm seems to be growing between the big leagues and the purity of baseball that we all admire.
So, I pose the question: What do we do now? Should we turn a blind eye to these built players as they knock balls over the walls of our giant baseball parks? The actions of an arrogant Congress may fix the problems of drug testing, but if it doesn't, should blind hope be placed on the spineless Bud Selig? I truly don't know. But I do know this: I found myself losing the anticipation for the opening of the season as I talked with my dad about it last weekend. This whole scandal makes me want to watch more college and minor league ball. But, just as all the cash is floating around the pockets of MLB players and owners, the television doesn't offer too much as far as college and minor league baseball go.
The legal implications and the fact these role models are practically encouraging young ball players to follow their ways are the most evident problems – big enough, obviously, to catch the eye of Capitol Hill. Yet, the secondary issue is that true fans of the game are discouraged. The stadiums will fill up for the 2005 playoffs, but the true measure of baseball is found in the hearts of the fans that watch the game from spring training to the World Series. The 1994 baseball strike was a big blow to the spirit of contemporary baseball, as was the possibility of strike a few years ago. But the scandal of steroids in the MLB may prove to be the biggest blow to the traditions of the game.
Who do we have to look up to now? Years and years ago, the great military leaders were our heroes. They invoked patriotism and earned adoring fans, but modern America has sports heroes. The ultimate America hero has always been the baseball player. What now? A baseball hero that cheats and uses steroids is no hero at all.