Baseball: America’s Past, Present and Future
Growing up with the MLB
Baseball is America’s pastime the first sport to make a name for our country. Being raised in a house full of baseball fans I have seen the sport evolve from the greats of yesterday Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa to today’s superstars Robinson Cano and Yasiel Puig. Baseball has evolved from the pastime of America and created a great melting pot taking young men from all over the world and placing them with the money they always wished upon as a child and to sweeten it up they are playing their favorite sport in the world. Baseball is a sport that is dominated by wages and high scale contracts. The teams that can afford the big money players can buy championships. I’ve seen my favorite team overcome the 86 year curse of the great bambino and win the 2004 world series and felt the glory of two more world series since. Along with the naive feeling of telling off all of my other friends that their favorite teams are not of the same championship winning caliber. My eyes were trained to see the transformation of my hero’s of yesterday, to the villains of today. In the MLB players can be viewed in one of two ways a hero or a villain. A man that will stay and fight for his city or take the first plane ride out of their when a better opportunity arises.
The hero’s of yesterday Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa used to be the men that every child was trying to live up to. Children like me would buy their jerseys and try and wear them as many times as their mothers would allow. I would try and wear my jersey every single time I would sit on my couch and watch a game with my dad. No matter what team I knew the star of their team and a few of their stats that made them the player that everyone admired. Whether it was Trot Nixon in the outfield making incredible catches or Manny Ramirez smashing homers over the green monster I enjoyed them all. No one expects the hero that they look up to to abandon their dreams and go to another team. It becomes more and more apparent that a baseball player is in the major leagues for money and not to allow kids a mentor to look up to and base their spot in athletics after.
Baseball players show a side of society that Joke Hermes a Dutch doctoral expert in popular culture brought to the surface in her paper Re-read Popular Culture. By giving all these people a way to get away from their everyday lives for nine innings they can pretend to be at the baseball stadium of their choosing. This shows how John Mepham a noted author in Hermes paper describes usable stories, Mepham uses the analogy of housewives to soap operas and how women can relate their lives to what is shown on the screen. Meanwhile, their husband’s live through sports to wish that they could the men out on the showing off their masculinity and brute strength. These men pass this on to the next generation from birth to their sons watching baseball on the sofa until they know enough to the point that they explode with excitement when they walk through the gates to their favorite park in America whether it be to the likes of Wrigley field or Fenway park. once you hit those seats and dig into some fresh steamed hot dogs, salted peanuts and a drink. Everyone bringing their mit in case of that one ball popped out of play whether it be a home run or a foul ball. This takes father and son one step closer to their cloud nine.
After the initial aw and glory of the game seems to wear off you can start to see the behind the scenes aspects of baseball. The gratitude of seeing the team of choice win a championship and then seeing the players you looked up to leave your team which makes no sense because that team was the best of the best why would they leave? It did not occur until later on that the players aren't on the team to add to the community and stay loyal to the fans, they play for pay and if it is not as good as they want or not enough then they will go elsewhere. The worst part is when one of your favorite of players goes to the enemy team that you can not stand. This was exhibited after the 2004 and 2013 world series in 2004 Johnny Damon went to the Yankees as did Jacoby Ellsbury after the 2013 world series. The Red Sox made them good offers but they evidently were not good enough. One fan started The Jacoby Ellsbury Sucks Forum where a fan explained “I hope he doesn't screw up or the NY fans will let him know it unlike the Boston fans who never booed him. I hope he doesn't cry on TV” (Jacoby). This shows a form of virtual disgust that can be related to Mepham’s usable stories and how we react to things we watch on television and how we feel like the players are our possessions even though we are just sitting watching it all go down on ESPN or MLB network. This on the other hand shows the greed that these players exhibit and takes away from the stardom of players that everyone used to see. These are every kids first broken hearts they feel so hopeless and hurt and never want to see that jersey that has food blood and sweat stains that last week they would call their most prized possession. As kids turn to teens they see the money and the greed that they had been blinded to as children.
Baseball has all of the aspects of life as a whole, you start off as a rookie and work your way up from the bottom until you get to the big leagues. Even when a player reaches the big leagues it isn't good enough to just be a major leaguer they want to shatter records win titles and be among the best to ever play and to have their faces encased in bronze and hung on a wall out in Cooperstown, New York for eternal greatness bringing them to the baseball utopia. That can relate to how people go through schooling to get to the big leagues that they have been working for and then they go out to the work force. Once that person gets at their job they start from the bottom and try to work their way to the top of the food chain and to bring their business to a level that they had never been at before. Thereby, hoping that they never are forgotten by the world or at least the people in their company. This shows a form of our capitalists government where government focuses more on status and money than the health of their people. This is portrayed quite well by an 1800’s political theorist Karl Marx who sole purpose was to try and make all people equal in society no one person better than another. Thereby making a baseball player just as good as any other factory worker.
One of the biggest contract names as of recently is Robinson Cano who just eight years ago started his career for the New York Yankees, a 23 year old with a measly $381,000 contract for the MLB a relatively low dollar amount. By Robinson being a good player he has worked his way up over the years and made a good living for himself. Once he hit three million his pay increased dramatically every season by as much as four million dollars a season while he was on the Yankees. When it came time for him to either resign with the Yankees or test the market he made it very apparent that he was looking for a long contract where he would get a fat contract. By him saying this enraged the fans of New York that he didn't care about them but rather just wanted money and if that brought him somewhere else then so be it. Ultimately him and his agent rapper and songwriter turned professional sports agent Shawn Carter or better known as Jay-Z went for a big contract in Seattle for a hefty twenty four million dollars a season (Pappas). The departure from New York left a sour taste in the New Yorker’s mouths with a very short sweet and to the point leaving speech. Just like that he left the team that made him a superstar high and dry. This is a very common trend in the MLB to no matter who the big fish player is they will bite on the hook with the biggest piece of payroll bait.
Overall this leads to the trend that people should not rely on a player to stay in their city to be the player of a lifetime for the said team. More times than not that player will leave your city as fast as possible for a contract that will give them a few more ferraris in the driveway and a few more houses around the country. So, if one of your favorite players is doing really well and that makes you very excited you better enjoy it while it lasts because once your team runs out of money he will leave you and your dreams in the dust. This further validates that the MLB is full of greedy men that are looking for money and not to make your dreams come true and be your role model.
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