Baseball

Do Our Baseball Heroes Have Feet of Clay By Aron Wallad

“Do our baseball heroes have feet of clay?”

Ok, we have suspected the sudden rash of home run hitters and stupendous long balls were the result of something fishy. We wanted to believe the home run magic’s time had come. We had a lot of rationalizations to choose from: perhaps it was because major league baseball restructured the baseball, or maybe we blamed poor pitching on the sudden deluge of homers. At the same time, we marveled at the tough physical training ball players went through. We gasped and admired the rippling muscles and electric shots of power from those bulging biceps. Yet, didn’t we all KNOW something was up, and just didn’t want to believe it. Our baseball heroes were cheating and we just refused to see it. Is it because baseball fans are arrogant or just romantic about their sport?

We could readily believe doping in horseracing. We accept boxing will have thrown bouts. Track and field athletes have been long under our suspicion. Yes, we even laughed about the blown up size of some football players. But baseball, our national sport, our hometown pride and joy, had to be above cheating. Sure we know baseball is big business, how can we not when we have experienced the strikes, been blacked out of local TV coverage, and have forked over a few hundred to see a special game at the park. We don’t even shake our heads over the multi-million dollar player contracts. But we never, EVER, wanted to admit the sluggers we so admired cheated their way to glory.

I watched Victor Conte Jr., the founder and chief executive of Balco, last night on 20/20 He, like any other drug pusher has some good sounding excuses for his business. His mantra was if everybody is cheating with steroids, then it’s not really cheating. This is the rationale of child or adolescent who does not have a fully developed moral code of ethics. “Everybody’s doing it,” is a chant every parent across America has heard and probably rejected with regard for unacceptable behavior of their children. We tell them there are serious consequences for bad behavior, and then we make sure we apply those consequences when needed. Shouldn’t we do the same to our baseball stars?

It is in every major league players contract the following clause:

“Paragraph 3 (a), "The player agrees to perform his services hereunder diligently and faithfully, to keep himself in first-class physical condition and to obey the club's training rules, and pledges himself to the American public and to the club to conform to high standards of personal conduct, fair play and good sportsmanship."

Major league uniform player’s contract

Players who have taken steroids, have voided their contract. They should not be paid for past or future services. Yes, I know those are pretty serious consequences. But making a mockery of your sport, and de-valuing its cherished records is a bitter blow to fans of the game.

Critics of the game hated its slowness and long innings of no-score. They say the fans started to come back to the game when the home-run was once again king—coinciding with increasing steroid use of the players. To them I say, the fans can be role models to the players. We want a clean game.

I’m willing to accept small ball: bunts, bloop singles, steals, pitching duels, defensive plays to keep the game pure yet exciting. Sure, I’ll miss those spectacular hits into the far reaches of the park. I won’t miss the dark speculation. When the long hits come, I’m hoping they will be the result of Paragraph 3, not a new performance enhancing designer drug.

This article was written by my wife - Cheryl Wallad

Author of inspirational baseball stories. Stories that hit a home run to your heart.

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