Sean B. Fitzgerald It doesn’t go something like this, it goes exactly like this.

Editorial

I realized today that I have a editorial due in my Sport Management class tomorrow. So about an hour ago I started whipping one up. I just finished. We were told to write an opinion piece on anything related to sports. It's a little lame, but whatever. Here it is...

       It was only a few days ago that Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees admitted to using performance enhancing substances from 2001 to 2003. The admission was met with great coverage and attention by the local and national media. ESPN had a twenty minute interview conducted by senior baseball analyst Peter Gammons that led SportsCenter. The New York Yankees held a press conference at their spring training home in Florida for Rodriguez to answer any further questions. The conference was attended by hundreds of media members wielding tape recorders and notepads. Reporters from North America, South America, Europe and Asia all stood by and watched Rodriguez admit to his faults. The media storm was vast, quick, and only a few weeks later it has seemed to dissipate. Sure there are a few stories still swirling around Rodriguez regarding his relatives, his meetings with Major League Baseball, and his performance this spring training. However, the fact of the matter is, the baseball-going public has become indifferent it seems. It is not a “story” anymore.

            For the better part of a decade, the game of baseball has been slapped around regarding the steroid issue. Records have been broken, congressional meetings have been held, and legacies have been tarnished. Yet baseball shows no signs of slipping. Attendance sky-rocketed over the past few years and new stadiums seem to be built every season. For a problem that was destined to end baseball as we know it, the game has quietly stepped aside as the problem passes. Barring the struggling economy, baseball will be as strong as ever. Fans will whine and moan about how their favorite athletes are “cheating the game” and “tainting the integrity of baseball”, yet they will continue to purchase their favorite teams apparel, buy three-hundred dollar tickets to the ballgame, and pay nine dollars for a hot dog.

            It is always nice to believe that we as human beings have a high moral ground, or that we are entitled to certain things. Yes, it is true, those athletes who test positive for performance enhancing substances have cheated. But does that type of action warrant the amount of criticism and denigration we inflict upon those players and the sport itself? The one attribute we hold most dear in our favorite athletes are their ability to be a “real” person, yet we ostracize them when they make “real” mistakes. We voice our outrage against these players, but the turnstiles are still used from April to October.   

            Professional baseball has been played in America for over one-hundred and twenty years. In that time there have been dozens of instances where integrity had been compromised and the playing field was not level. Until 1947, African-Americans were not even in the league. Bats have been corked, balls have been scuffed. The 1919 Chicago Black Sox are still referenced today for throwing the World Series. And the all-time hits leader in major league baseball, Pete Rose, has been kept out of the Hall of Fame for placing bets on games he played. There have been individuals littered across the landscape of the game who stopped at nothing to gain an unfair advantage. However, baseball continues to be our national pastime, fathers still use it as a way to connect with their sons and daughters, and no sport is more symbolic of new beginnings than baseball.

            For over one-hundred and twenty years, America has stood by our pastime through the ups and downs. Steroids are just another chapter in the book of baseball. The naysayers who believe that the game is doomed have a very short memory. What the past has shown is that we, as a society, treat baseball as well as sports in general, as a microcosm of life. There are triumphs and there are defeats. There are heroes and there are villains. But such is life; we enjoy the game as a whole. Baseball is not about the destination, it is about the journey.