America's Pastime and the Need for a Hero

Baseball has meant more to this country than any other sport. The game has had its hands in healing and comforting America through a myriad of adversities. It has given hope to countless Americans when they needed it most. In times of war, depression, oppression, and scandal, baseball, either the game itself or a player within the game, has come to the rescue time and again. Over the past century and a half America's Pastime has produced the occasional hero to carry us through the rough times. If history tells us anything it may just be time for another legend to come our way.

Healing a Country Divided

An artist's depiction of baseball in a Civil War camp

The origins of baseball are pretty hazy, but its development is an incredible story. Northeasterners, particularly New Yorkers, became passionate about the game prior to the Civil War. Surprisingly the war caused this new and unknown game to flourish and become a nationwide phenomenon. As morale in the North's camps dwindled, baseball became more and more important. New Yorkers introduced the game to their fellow soldiers and when officers realized it was great for health and morale they wrote to other camps and encouraged baseball to be played by their men. It became such a popular game even the Confederate soldiers who were prisoners in the Union's camps picked it up and played, sometimes among themselves and sometimes against the North. I'll bet those interleague match-ups got pretty interesting.

Following the war the country needed healing in every aspect, and just as it had raised morale during the war, baseball helped to mend a country split in two. The Cincinnati Red Stockings became the first professional team in 1869 and the game soon became a distinct part of America's identity.

WWI and the Black Sox

The United States had been involved in several wars since the Civil War, perhaps most notably the Spanish-American War, but none of those would compare to World War I. Thankfully that war ended in 1918, four years after it began, and it was nowhere near as tragic as the Civil War had been for the US. That being said, it was still a war and the country still needed to be healed.

But baseball, instead of working to heal America, nearly destroyed its trust in the game just a few decades after it began.

Shoeless Joe Jackson of the 1919 Chicago Black Sox

The 1919 Chicago White Sox were one of the best teams ever to play baseball to that point. They were led by Shoeless Joe Jackson and a long list of other stars with virtually no holes in their lineup. They came into the World Series as the heavy favorites over the Cincinnati Reds, but little did the general public know, first baseman "Chick" Gandil had organized a fix. The Sox lost the Series 5-3, but ended up losing so much more. Eventually eight players from that team were found guilty of fixing the Series by betting against themselves and throwing games. Those eight were banned from the game for life. The scandal earned that team a new nickname, the Black Sox, and the integrity of the game had been greatly compromised for the first time.

But I suppose the legacy the Sox left behind isn't all bad. After all, the hero of that era, and the greatest player ever to lift a bat, actually patterned his swing after Shoeless Joe. (And by the way, I still think Jackson was innocent in terms of the fix, but that's a story for another day).

Just when baseball was losing America's trust, and just when baseball needed a hero, America was introduced to the greatest baseball player of all time: Babe Ruth.

Never before or since has there been a player as dominant as the Great Bambino. He was a good pitcher even before he became a legendary hitter. He set records, left curses, built stadiums, called shots, and almost a hundred years later we still consider him the greatest ball player of all time. Baseball fans of that era had a player they could cheer for, and it helped heal the hurt of war and scandal. Babe Ruth was the perfect cure for baseball and for America.

WWII

You want heroes? How about the 500 big league baseball players who left the game to serve our country in World War II? In the same year that saw the last .400 hitter in Ted Williams and one of the most untouchable baseball records in Joe DiMaggio's 56 game hitting streak, we also saw players drafted and voluntarily signing up for service in the military.

And it wasn't just backups or role players, there were superstars of the game who left fame and glory to defend America's freedom. Williams and Joltin' Joe both interrupted their legendary careers, as well as other future Hall of Famers such as Bob Feller, who rushed to enlist as soon as he heard about the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Many were critical that baseball was continuing on during the war. Some believed that these able bodied ball players should be serving their country and that baseball should not continue. However, one soldier, Private Clifford Mansfield, was quoted as saying "Baseball is part of the American way of life. Remove it and you remove something from the lives of American citizens, soldiers, and sailors. For the morale of the soldier and the morale of America itself, 'keep 'em playing'."

Baseball helped keep America's spirits high during the war, and the heroes who served our country with honor returned and gave the country even greater cause to cheer for them.

A Hero for Change

Jackie Robinson stole home in Game 1
of the 1955 World Series

But in the aftermath of World War II there was still a significant problem in baseball: it was still a white man's game. There were no black players to be found in the Major Leagues but rather had to play in the Negro Leagues, which did well in their own right with players such as Satchel Paige, Roy Campanella, Willie Mays, and of course, Jackie Robinson.

The hero the African American community needed arrived on the big league scene in 1947 and took it by storm. In spite of intense persecution and abuse, Robinson became the Rookie of the Year hitting .297 with 12 home runs and a league leading 29 stolen bases. He went on to have a fantastic career with All Star appearances in six of his ten season. He won the MVP award and batting title in 1949.

More importantly he broke the color barrier that would change the game of baseball forever. Major League Baseball was no longer white, it was on its way to being fully integrated and a true representation of the best America had to offer. It was now truly a national pastime, minorities included.

And by the way, if you haven't seen "42," change that. Now.

The Strike

The 1994 and 1995 Major League Baseball seasons were marred by a player's strike that left baseball fans everywhere frustrated and outraged. The 1994 playoffs and World Series were cancelled, the pinnacle of the worst work stoppage in professional sports history.

Tony Gwynn, Larry Walker, Craig Biggio, and Jeff Bagwell were among the many players who helped heal us in the '90s after we lost a little trust and faith in the game. But in my mind there are two players that really stood above the rest in making the game important to us again, and for two entirely different reasons: Cal Ripken Jr. and Ken Griffey Jr.

Cal Ripken Jr. was known as "Iron Man" for his ability to consistently stay in the lineup. He fought off several injury scares and managed stay in the lineup for 16 consecutive years. Along that road he managed to break one of those unbreakable records: Lou Gehrig's streak of 2,130 consecutive games played.

Ripken rounding the bases after homering in the
fourth inning the day he broke Lou Gehrig's record

Ripken's streak was actually threatened by the strike when owner's were threatening to use replacement players to complete the season. Perhaps recognizing the importance of The Streak to the game of baseball, Orioles owner Peter Angelos made it clear he would rather forfeit the remainder of the season than see Ripken's streak come to an end, and fortunately it never came to that. What made Cal Ripken Jr., and baseball for that matter, special was watching him shatter Lou Gehrig's record. He surpassed the record in 1996, the first complete season after the strike, and finally took himself out of the lineup after 2,632 consecutive games in 1998. Ripken was a Hall of Fame player regardless of The Streak, but this legendary record cemented his legacy and helped ignite baseball passion around the country.

What made Ken Griffey Jr. a hero? Quite simply he was the best baseball player America had seen in a really, really long time. The Kid was the epitome of a five tool ball player. He could throw, field, run, hit, and most of all he could hit with power. He was a 13 time All Star, won a Gold Glove in every year of the 1990s, and earned seven Silver Slugger awards. He is the only three-time winner of the Home Run Derby and hit over 40 home runs on seven different occasions, hitting 56 in 1997 and 1998. Junior finished his career with 630 dingers, good for fourth all time (if you exclude Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez, which I do).

Junior watching one of his many long balls

It amazes me that in spite of all those statistics he only earned one MVP award in his career. Regardless of that he earned enough honors and was so dominant during the '90s he is arguably the greatest player of this generation. With probably the prettiest swing in the history of the game, an incredible amount of talent, and a personality that told us all he was just having fun out there, he was virtually everyone's favorite player of the 1990s. Having a superstar like Griffey made us miss baseball during the player's strike and excited us when it came back. Junior was the kind of hero baseball deserves in every generation.

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And now here we are, hopefully on the tail end of the steroid era. Fans are losing a lot of interest in baseball, particularly the younger generation (more women 50 or older watched last year's World Series than men under 50). Part of the problem may be the slower pace of the game or the feeling we get that baseball is stuck in tradition with an unwillingness to change and progress, which has valid arguments on both sides. But one of the largest reasons is that people have lost faith in the players. Sacred records have been broken by cheaters leaving us confused as to who the true home run kings are. Is Roger Maris the single season home run leader with 61, or are juiced up Sammy Sosa (66), Mark McGwire (70), and Barry Bonds (73) all ahead of him in the record books? Does Hammerin' Hank Aaron own the career mark with 755, or is Bonds the Home Run King with 762?

We could use another baseball legend like the
greatest legend of all time: Babe Ruth

Bonds, McGwire, Sosa, Roger Clemens, Jason Giambi, Ryan Braun, Alex Rodriguez... The list goes on and on and on, filled with superstars who violated our trust by using performance enhancing drugs. At first we thought they were legends in the making. Now their names are forever tainted for lying to us and violating the sacredness of baseball. The game has lost a lot of fans, some we have no hope of recovering, but if baseball has any hope of continuing on as the American Pastime we need a Babe Ruth or a Ken Griffey Jr. We need someone to make a run at a sacred and unbreakable record (DiMaggio's hit streak?). We need someone who takes the game by storm. We may even need a whole army of them.

Sure we have Miguel Cabrera, last year's Triple Crown winner, the first since 1967. Sure we have Chris Davis, who hit home runs in the first half of the season at an alarming rate, though he's slowed considerably since the All-Star break. Sure we have Yasiel Puig, who broke onto the big league scene with some major noise back in June.

But none of them are the legend we need. At least not yet.

Maybe he's in the League already, maybe he isn't. But hopefully we find him, or them soon. Who will it be? Cabrera? Davis? Puig? Mike Trout? Bryce Harper? Stephen Strasburg?

We need to step into another golden age of baseball, and we need our heroes to be clean beyond a shadow of a doubt. I don't know what it's going to take, but we need a legendary player, or players, that we can trust. Maybe then our faith in the players and love of the game will be restored.