July 25, 2007
Around the horn on baseball - Part 1
By TOM WILLIAMS
Sports Columnist
There has been a great deal of talk about baseball recently.
While African-American Barry Bonds tied the career home run record set by
African-American Hank Aaron, national stories have dissected the reduction of
African-American players in the game at the high school, college and even the
professional levels.
The Ocean City Youth Athletic Association, for the second consecutive summer,
does not have a 12-and-Under all star team. Even the Linwood Little League, which
just won a district title with its 12-and-Under team under the creative direction
of league president Dave Talarico, is very close to the minimum number of teams
required by Little League Baseball to maintain a franchise. There are a number of
communities in South Jersey that have combined their leagues in order to keep
their franchises.
Yet, while all of these facts might indicate that the sport is in decline, on two
straight Saturdays there were more people in major league baseball stadiums (an
average of nearly 40,000) than on any other day during the regular season in
baseball history. And analysts correctly believed there would not be very much
activity before the July 31 trade deadline because the business of baseball is so
good right now that teams don t need to unload contracts for bottom-line reasons.
There may not be simple solutions to the African-American situation. The
consensus is that football and basketball, games of speed and excitement, have
attracted the young black athletes away from baseball. You can play basketball
with four guys on a playground and get up a game of touch football in a vacant
lot with six or eight players. But to play a decent game of baseball you need a
very large lot and 10 or 12 players. The days of stick ball in the streets of
Brooklyn or the Bronx seem to have faded.
One of the primary arguments used to support the accomplishments of Babe Ruth
compared with the players of today is the watering down of the game by increasing
the number of major league teams from the 16, when he played, to the current 30.
But that argument ignores that Ruth retired four days before the first night game
was played, getting to play all of his games in natural light. He traveled
leisurely from city to city by train or bus with no need to worry about jet lag.
And he never had to face an African-American, Hispanic or Asian pitcher.
Make no mistake about it, Ruth was one of greatest players of all-time, if not
THE greatest player. But baseball today is a much more challenging sport with far
more talented athletes than when Ruth played. Still, the game cannot maintain its
high level of competition if it loses the African-American athletes and other
players of the future, currently of Little League age.
Bruce Beaver, a former OCYAA all star who was prepared to be part of a coaching
staff for the league's all star team this summer, was stunned when he was told
that not enough 11 and 12 year olds in Ocean City were prepared to carve out the
time in their schedules to be part of the all star team. "When I played," he said,
"you got upset if you weren't picked to be part of the all star team. Now you
have trouble convincing them to play."
For some reason, when these players become 12, there are other things that
attract them. Sometimes there are family vacations. Some players play in summer
soccer or basketball leagues. Others are attracted to the natural attractions in
a resort town, like boating or surfing. Of course, almost all of those activities
can be maintained while still honoring a commitment to a baseball team.
The only logical assumption is that baseball is not important enough to many of
these young athletes to warrant playing on an all star team after the two months
of their regular league season have been completed. And the reasons for parallel
struggles in other communities must be similar.
Still, while some youth baseball programs in this area are facing challenging
times, major league baseball continues to thrive. Which brings us back to Bonds
and Aaron.
The only public discussion Hank Aaron has offered about Barry Bonds went
something like this - "I don't think it is fair to convict somebody or hold them
responsible for something unless you have proof. Anything else would be very
unfair."
Bonds has never failed a drug test. (By the way, over 60 percent of the baseball
players who have failed drug tests were pitchers. In fact, the pitcher who gave
up No. 755 on Saturday had been suspended in the minor leagues for failing a drug
test.) Bonds is obviously bigger than he was six or seven years ago and we can
all draw our own conclusions about how that happened. But no chemicals can change
an ordinary hitter into a great hitter. You either have the timing or you don t.
In his prime, Arnold Schwarzenegger would look foolish at the plate. Remember how
Michael Jordan, one of the most accomplished and talented athletes in history,
struggled to hit a baseball.
There is a theory that part of Aaron's problem with this whole thing is that it
brings back bad memories. What should have been one of the highlights of his
career was a struggle with racists who threatened his life. His daughter could
not attend the record-breaking game because she was under armed guard in a safe
house because of a kidnap threat. And, when Aaron's mother gave him a long hug in
the ceremony following home run No. 715, she later said it was only partly to
congratulate him. She was afraid he might get shot and she was trying to protect
him.
Babe Ruth was a great player, Hank Aaron was a great player and Barry Bonds is a
great player. Bonds is going to break Aaron's career home run record with more
than 2,000 fewer at bats. Each faced different challenges and each dealt with
them his own way.
Bonds sometimes says things you'd probably wish he hadn't said. He has not always
cooperated with the media. But if you are a baseball fan and you aren't taking
advantage of opportunities to watch the man swing the bat, then you're really
missing something.
Next week, part two on baseball will deal with the presentation of the sport on
television and radio.
Read more of
Tom Williams' columns