Rob's Rants, By: Rob Downey
Is baseball in need of an overhaul?
April
The remembrance by Major League Baseball of the anniversary of the late and great Jackie Robinson having broken the "color line" in 1947 was a wonderful tribute to this courageous man. Robinson had an influence on this country's collective thinking that extended far beyond the game of baseball itself. One could argue that Jackie Robinson's emergence on the baseball scene in 1947 was actually the beginning of the civil rights movement in America. Many former African-American standout baseball players such as Henry Aaron, Frank Robinson, and Joe Morgan used this occasion to take to the airwaves to express their deep concern with the lack of black players at the professional level in the game of baseball today.
I concur with these individuals in their assessment that there has been a steady decline in the numbers of black athletes that participate in baseball in the past decade or so. However, I also feel that there is an overall decline, irrespective of race, in the number of youth that are playing baseball across the country today that should be just as much of a concern to those who love the game.
I have observed that in the last 10 years or so there has been a gradual reduction in the numbers of both black and white athletes that are playing baseball at the high school level. I believe that there are several issues that are contributing to this phenomenon. I think that there are at least two other major issues that have occurred at the professional level that have had a significant impact on the decline in the popularity of baseball in the amateur ranks. First, there is the effect that the revelation of the use of steroids and other muscle-building substances by baseball players has had on the collective psyche of all of us, whether we are serious fans or not. Second, is the effect that the strike of 1994 had on baseball fans of all ages and races.
The steroid issue has damaged the integrity of the game tremendously, and the reluctance of major league baseball to deal with this problem has in the eyes of many been a sign of the greed and arrogance that has become rampant within baseball at the professional level. The failure by MLB to both quickly acknowledge its' problem with steroids and to deal with the issue has caused many fans of the game to become suspicious of the individual achievements that have occurred in the last 10-15 years. This in turn has caused many fans to turn away from the game, and it has had a "trickle down" effect on the interest of youth who might have become both fans and participants in baseball.
In 1994, players forced the cancellation of the second half of that season, including the playoffs and the World Series. The strike continued into the first week of the 1995 season, but the cancellation of the 1994 World Series had a huge impact on baseball fans everywhere.
Imagine if the players in the National Football League decided to go on strike and there were to be no Super Bowl. Just think of the outrage that would occur, and the negative impact such an event would have on the popularity of professional football, if this were to take place.
The adverse effect that the 1994 strike had on baseball took several years to recover from, and then the single event that was at the core of the resurgence in popularity of the game (the much publicized pursuit of Roger Maris' single-season home run record by the St. Louis Cardinals' Mark McGwire and the Chicago Cubs' Sammy Sosa in 1998) has become forever tainted by the suspicion that McGwire and Sosa, among others, may have been using steroids or other muscle-building supplements in order to help them to become bigger and stronger.
Here we are in 2007, and as Barry Bonds pursues the record that Henry Aaron established for most home runs in a career, baseball is still clouded with the issue of steroids and the impact they have had on the success and accomplishments of individuals within the game.
In the meantime, many other sports have enjoyed a surge in popularity at the expense of baseball. This trend may be irreversible, and if the slow reaction of MLB in addressing its' concerns is any indication of what the future holds, it just may be that baseball at the amateur level will forever be relegated to holding a much less significant status than has been the case in the past.
For the sake of the memory of Jackie Robinson, and many other former and current greats in the game, I hope that proves not to be the case.
