I usually keep content directly related to dream-events, but I cannot help adding my take on the Bonds’ scandal and the state of baseball. I used to follow baseball very closely with significant emotional investment…and it turned out to be an extremely poor one. Perhaps this is even relevant to baseball-related dreams…
Generally, the Bonds case (and related events such as those surrounding Mark McGuire and others) is part of what will be known as another ‘era’ of the game–like the ‘deadball’ era of the teens, the ‘rabbit ball era’ of the 20’s, the war-time era, the era of pitching dominance in the 60s, etc., but this is also a scandal of Black Sox proportions–one that isn’t ever erased, but significantly tarnishes the reputation of the game. …and there is plenty of blame to go around, including the baseball execs, and the fans themselves, so I really have no pity for anyone about this. It was common knowledge that steroids were a wide-spread problem in professional sports from at least the late 80s onward. Sadly, probably the first game-wide significant steroid-impacted event was the World Series victory of the ‘89 Oakland A’s with the ‘juiced’ Jose Canseco leading the way.
By the late 90s baseball knew what was going on, but did nothing because the homeruns were bringing in the fans and the money. Their steroid policy was a joke and still is. As far as I’m concerned, baseball’s policies regarding drug testing aren’t that far removed from those of Vince McMahon, and the motivations are similar. In fact, at least Vince McMahon has a case when he says that the Wrestling dollars are driven not by physiques, but by personalities: Hulk Hogan was one of the least technically skilled wrestlers and was still wrestling’s major draw even in this decade when he can hardly move around the ring, but he was the best at shouting down a camera. We certainly know that Bonds’ personality doesn’t win him any friends or fans–they are only drawn by his asterisked homeruns.
And those fans of Bonds are to blame too, and many others as well for holding the homerun as the ultimate goal of the batter, even the game. This under-appreciation for the subtleties of the game has been rampant from the Ruthian era, and motivates these sorts of events, not to mention the fact that it diminishes the overall quality of play. I would much rather watch a well played game from the deadball era than a bunch of steroid sluggers swinging for the fences in every at bat. …but homeruns make for better, and easier headlines (be they in the NY Times or the Evening News or Sportscenter) than a squeeze play, and any beer-guzzling idiot in the stands can fully appreciate them.
There is plenty of blame to go around, and as for the tainted records, they should stay (they have to, as you can’t rewind history, erase homeruns, take runs away from teams, change the scores of games in the past, etc). Like the 1919 Black Sox loss, it will stay in the books as a well-deserved mark of shame.
Whether or not the owners, league, media, management, coaches, players or fans learn anything from this is another matter.
In any case, I’m marking this as the end of an era for me, as I can no longer call myself a fan of the game as it is played today–or really, as it has been over at least the last 15 years or so.
