Member-only story
For the Love of the Game
Baseball.
The word rolls off my tongue like a prayer. Reverently. Whispered. And with more than a hint of breathy anticipation.
Into the squint-worthy sun of Florida’s west coast, Red Sox players, coaches, and fans have made their annual pilgrimage to Fort Myers for the start of Spring Training. For more than a century, the Grapefruit League has played host to this time-honored tradition. With fifteen teams scattered across the Sunshine State, a ballpark is always just a stone’s throw away.
Despite its moniker as our “national pastime,” a growing number of sports enthusiasts have grown disenchanted with my beloved avocation. I can’t say I blame them. The tripartite magic of hit, run, and catch has strained under the weight of baseball’s three-headed hydra; free agency, steroids, and though it pains me to admit it, tedium.
First up in the batter’s box — free agency. In 1976, attorney Marvin Miller successfully argued that southpaw Dave McNally and righthander Andy Messersmith be allowed to shop their wares after playing a full season without a contract. The feeding frenzy that followed gave rise to some of the largest contracts ever signed. For many fans, this tidal wave of cash soured their taste for the game. Owners were painted as penny-pinching millionaires, players as self-centered and overindulged. While there is some truth to both assertions, the real loser in this tug-o-war was the game itself. Free agency rewards big market teams who can afford top-tier talent. With only a handful of clubs able to pay top dollar, Major League Baseball has become a collection of haves and have nots. There is a reason middle America is tired of hearing about the Yankees and Dodgers, and of our own hometown team during better days. Parity is a forgotten word in baseball, much to the fans’ collective chagrin.
Two decades later, it would be steroids that blackened baseball’s eye. In a game where every statistic imaginable is tracked and analyzed, performance enhancing drugs have rendered baseball’s numerical yardstick moot. Record books and Cooperstown’s Hall of Fame, once sacrosanct markers of achievement, are now peppered with asterisks, both proven and conjectured. Some devotees downplay the impact of steroid use, likening it to the effect widespread use of amphetamines played in earlier…
