While
Big League counterparts are mired in steroid scandals, these pre-teens symbolize
the purity that the national pastime used to signify in more naïve times, a
reminder of how much in American life has been corrupted by a do-anything
desire to get bigger and stronger.
Whatever
these pubescent kids lack in strength and skill, they will reward us with the
sight of how untainted competition used to be. In a society more divided than
ever into haves and have-nots, we will briefly glimpse a level playing field
once again.
There
has always been and will be some cheating—-Ty Cobb’s spikes, pitchers’ spitballs,
pine tar on bats—-but those were misdemeanors compared to today’s scandals in
which A-Rod and others are being punished for bulking up their bodies illegally
while lovers of the game wait for more shoes to drop. Where did all those
pitchers who throw 100 miles an hour come from?
Cynics
will blame multi-million-dollar contracts, but money alone is not at the root
of all this evil. Like politics, baseball is about power and prestige as well
and it’s harder than ever for pure-hearted kids to hold on to the ideal of the
game as they grow up.
Life
on the diamonds is not as simple as it used to be, and neither is the political competition led by the likes of John Boehner and Mitch McConnell.
On
ESPN and ABC in the coming week, we will witness the absolute love of a game
that we mostly see these days only on the movie channels in “Field of Dreams”
and “The Natural.”
It would
be heartening to see some of it on CNN and other cable news about the political games in our time.
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