Wednesday, August 7, 2002
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Wednesday, August 7, 2002 |
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If there's a baseball strike, whose fault is it? By MONROE ROARK Nearly everyone who actually cares about whether major league baseball players will go on strike this season has also chosen whom to blame for it. Granted, there's plenty of obvious blame to go around, what with the way the players and owners have behaved in general during the so-called negotiations. But let's look at it a little bit deeper and see if there might be a correlation between this possible action and a much larger issue in American society. On the players' side, you have huge sums being paid every year to players, and team payrolls that just get bigger every year, provided the team is in a large enough market to afford it. As you look at a typical major league roster from top to bottom, you see not only the ridiculously high price for superstardom, but also the ridiculously high price for mediocrity; for every $15 million-per-year home run champion, there's a handful of part-time players who ride the bench at $2 million apiece. On the owners' side, you have regular threats to move teams from city to city, alienating fans across the country, and blackmailing local governments for new stadiums loaded with revenue-rich luxury boxes and tax breaks galore. They alternate crying about high salaries with their continued efforts to raise the bar in that regard by signing the latest bank-breaking free agent. But does the sports fan have any responsibility in this matter? "No way," you say. How can the average sports fan, who goes out and works a full week just to make a living, have any responsibility for this insanity going on between a bunch of spoiled adults? That's easy. The culture of the sports fan in America, by raising sports to a position far above what it should actually occupy among our collective priorities, and continuing to support it financially at the expense of good common sense, has brought major league baseball and all other professional sports (plus major college athletics) to where it is today. The cost for a family of four to take in a major league baseball game is ludicrous. Ticket prices have gone up consistently across the board for years, but as long as fans keep paying them, why shouldn't they? I have no problem with any player getting what he or she can rightfully get in a free market; the problem is what has happened to that market. The financial rewards available in professional sports have polluted the minds of countless young people, who have forfeited their chances for a good education to chase an impossible dream. That's the culture American sports fans have created by placing such unreasonable importance on games and entertainment. Athletes hold a position of leadership in our society that most of them have no business holding. No ballplayer should be a role model simply by virtue of being a ballplayer, but that's the culture today in America and there's no way to avoid it. But instead of using that influence in a positive manner, too many athletes do exactly the opposite. For every pro player who impacts young people for the better, there are 10 who form a daily parade across the police blotters of this country. At the college level, cheating is epidemic. Players coming out of desperate financial situations have money and perks thrown at them by boosters seeking wins at any cost and coaches whose very careers depend upon their win-loss records. Those who set foot on campus unequipped to handle the academic load sometimes find it handled for them, and they leave college no more literate than when they entered. Why is all of this happening? Because the games have taken priority. There was a time in this country when playing games on Sunday would not have been thought of. Take a look at today's Sunday sports pages. You can park in front of your television set early in the morning and watch games nonstop until midnight. We built a nation on the freedom to worship as we please, and millions of Americans worship at the sports altar on a weekly basis, while their children grow up in a spiritual vacuum. Want to do a little scientific research? Take a poll of 10 or 20 friends and family members. Ask them to name the starting lineup for the Atlanta Braves or whatever favorite team they might have. Then ask them to name their two U.S. senators and the U.S. representative, state senator and state representative from their respective districts. You can probably imagine what the results of that poll would be. If the baseball players and owners reach a new collective bargaining agreement, it will only be temporary. It's going to take some responsibility from players, owners and fans to turn back the past few decades of sports worship in this country and have some lasting effects. And the chances of that happening look pretty slim.
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