COLUMN: Goin' fishin' for the Series title

From Yoni Slonim's, "Ink Blots," Fall '97 From Yoni Slonim's, "Ink Blots," Fall '97 I admit it. I still get excited about baseball. While most of my friends lost all interest in the sport during or after high school (re: the strike), I still hung on. Somehow, I was pulled in by its sweetness. It was corn but it was America for me. Rather, I chose to separate it from their on-field performance. As long as they produced during those three hours of game-time all would be forgiven. However, there was more to my easy acceptance of the players than my naivete? I never looked towards the players as role models outside of their performance. Yes, I would imitate Darryl Strawberry's looping homerun swing but never his habits. For me, at least there was no reason to imitate their off-field antics. It wasn't that I viewed the players as bad people. Rather, I came to see them as normal Americans. Why should we hold them to a higher standard? The reverse is the truth. The Pete Roses and Doc Goodens of the world are a very good measuring stick of America's morality. In an indirect way these specific players might encourage gambling and drug abuse. However, on the whole, they do what most Americans do or would be doing if they were earning the player's salaries. The sport is just a magnifying glass focused on our nation. With this theory in mind it was only during this year's World Series that I was now questioning my loyalty to the game. It wasn't that the games were played in the freezing weather (thanks to the wild card), or that the pitching and defense were terrible, or that the two best teams were not in the fall classic. I had seen bad baseball and bad World Series before (for instance, Cincinnati and Oakland in 1990). I could deal with that. After going into extra innings the deciding game of the Series even promised an exciting and suspenseful end to the championship. One could feel the players tightening. The whole season was going to boil down to one mistake and one hero. The room for error was decreasing inning by excruciating inning. I was on the edge of my seat goading the players on with my ever-helpful coaching strategies. It was like old times, baseball mattered, and it was fun. Finally, the game ended on Edgar Renteria's single up the middle. The game was ripe for stories. The man who won the game was from Colombia and the MVP, Livan Hernandez, had defected from Cuba. There was room for the new American dream. America is still the land of opportunity these players had worked hard to reach the pinnacle of their profession. After the game-winning hit the players started to run toward the middle of the field. I was waiting to see the classic moment where the players would jump all over the guy crossing home with the winning run. However, this was not to be. The players didn't seem to know what to do. They started to pare off into little groups of two and three and celebrate amongst themselves while running around the field claiming their "number-oneness" to the fans. Similarly, the manager did not get around to joining his players until after he ran around the field almost completely by himself. Something was awry. Where was the emphasis on team? It had always been automatic -- first go crazy with your teammates who you had gone through the battles with, and only then cheer with the fans. It started to become clear that there really was very little team to talk about in this Florida franchise called the Marlins. Several of the key contributors to the team were bought last winter by the commitment of $95 million to six free-agent players and the manager, Jim Leyland. Why should the players go crazy with each other? They barely knew one another. Again, I did not blame baseball. The depressing thought was that in America buying and selling talent, the total emphasis on the win and the absolute drive for the bottom line is now normal and to be expected. The post-game interviews confirmed my worst fears. After just finishing a very exciting game, the sportscasters, in front of 60,000 plus Florida fans started to ask the owner, manager and players questions. They could not come up with anything better to ask about than money; "Are you going to sell the team? Did you buy the World Series?" It all revolved around the greenback and it was disgusting. Why didn't they ask the manager how it felt after all these years to finally win? Or, ask the defector if he had ever expected this to happen so soon. Does every single thing have to revolve around money? Is there nothing, not sacred, but at least valued above the dollar bill? The stock market "crashes" and everyone goes into a depression while a dictator who endorses cruel punishment for political prisoners is greeted with open arms by our country's and a University's president with barely any public reaction against his policy's. It's good for the economy everyone says. But is the economy good for us?