Baseball was never a sport that I just gravitated to.
To me, and a lot of young Black males like myself and younger, Baseball is considered an “old Negro” sport – we see our grandfathers when we think of Baseball. What I mean by that is Baseball is a sport that Black kids don’t really care too much for it. I think that it really started with my generation. The Michael Jordan Era made basketball the king of sports for all Basketball fans, particularly for Black folk. And once Jordan retired the 2nd time, the NBA could never get back what it lost with Jordan’s departure from the Bulls and then the NFL blew up. In addition to those factors, baseball diamonds are rare in urban neighborhoods. Baseball isn’t an influencing factor any longer because of this non-presence in urban parks and open spaces. I’ve had friends play baseball growing up. None of them were Black. Baseball has remained strong in the Latino community; that popularity can be attributed to the geographical landscape of the city. Research shows the games people play or create is heavily influenced by the work that they do. Because a lot of places in Central, South America and the Caribbean are agricultural in terms of their economy, finding an open field to play baseball isn’t a hard thing to do. Turn that around to the cities, and you find sidewalks, bricks and concrete…few fields. Now the reason why I call Baseball an old Negro sport is because Black folks that I refer to as Negroes are Black folk who graduated from high school before 1960. Many of those individuals grew up in the south…where there were a plethora of fields and open space to place baseball. Combine that with the fact that Baseball is one of the oldest in American sports and it was the first sport to integrate and you can understand why your Grandfather and mine loved the Dodgers.
And my Grandpop Joseph loved him some Dodgers and Jackie Robinson. In fact, he loved Tommy Lasorda, just because the Dodgers integrated first. My Grandpop loved the Los Angeles Rams off the strength of the Dodgers moving to LA. And all old Negroes like him, loved the Dodgers. And they loved baseball because; let’s face it, the best Baseball players played in the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s. They got to watch their favorite Negro League players make it to the majors – Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, and Satchel Paige. They got to see Mantle, Berra, Gibson, and the “Say Hey Kid.” This was the golden era. No need for steroids…
Uh oh; I said steroids. That is the magic word. Well, maybe the magic word for death in Baseball. During the 90’s when the Jordan Era was in its high time, Baseball was slowly dying down in the popularity contest. Then comes 1998; 4 sports stories come to my mind that year: Michael Jordan quest for 6 rings, Randy Moss destroying every team he played against in his rookie season reviving Randall Cunningham’s career in the process, John Elway defining his legacy in football with a Championship (thanks to Terrell Davis) and Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa’s quest for 61. That summer of 1998 the nation was captivated by McGwire and Sosa…never mind the year before, Junior Griffey hit 58 HR’s. But the two of these men went on a tear and ended the year with 70 (McGwire) and 66 (Sosa) respectively. 3 years later, Barry Bonds hit 73. All three of these men used steroids, oh excuse me; performance enhancing drugs. This decade, the lid came off once Jose Canseco made the accusation that a lot of baseball players including McGwire, Sosa and even Roger Clemens took steroids, which led to the 2003 Mitchell Report. The Mitchell report named actual names and called folks out. A number of those folks went to congress and said vehemently that they did not take steroids. The one that comes to mind is Rafael Palmerio. The man pointed at the senators in front of him and said “I have never used steroids…period.” He looked all angry. And then in 2005, after he hit his 3000th hit, or Rafael Palmerio Appreciation Day no less, he was suspended for testing positive for steroids. The day was canceled. He had earplugs in his ear so that he wouldn’t hear boos from the fans. So, Palmerio left the game although he did not formally retire. In 06, he still denied the steroid use. And then, his name was published in the Mitchell Report in 07. Palmerio has since then mysteriously vanished.
Barry Bonds was indicted last year for lying to federal authorities regarding his usage of steroids and/or performance enhancers as it related to the government case against Balco – Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative which marketed tetrahydrogestrinone (“the Clear”), a then-undetected, performance-enhancing steroid to athletes not limited to Barry Bonds, Marion Jones and former NFL linebacker Bill Romanowski. Bonds is scheduled to go to trial this March. What still doesn’t sit well with me is that Bonds has pretty much been blackballed by the sport yet McGwire has been allowed back in after his self imposed exile? McGwire is a hitting coach for the St. Louis Cardinals and all he had to do was admit that he took steroids. McGwire was the dude that said to Congress that he “wasn’t there to talk about the past,” the same time Palmerio made his declaration. Bonds crime has been his defiance I suppose. Maybe people would be forgiving and so would baseball if he admitted to it. Look at A-Rod; at the beginning of 2009, he sat in front of the press looking like an idiot for lying about his steroid usage and now he had to clean up his mess; at the end of 2009, he was in the clubhouse celebrating his first World Series and he was a hero. I doubt that will happen to Barry. His defiance has pretty much sealed his fate.
But the biggest baseball player possibly of them all has been caught up too…I mean Roger Clemens. Yesterday he was indicted for lying to Congress. His name was in the Mitchell Report. Brian McNamee told Congress that he personally injected Clemens with steroids. Clemens told Congress that didn’t happen. The FBI investigated for over 2 years. Yesterday, the indictment came down, and the killer is that Congress never called Roger…Roger demanded that he testify to Congress and if he has lied, he has pretty much sealed his fate. But I believe that the brotha is a bit stubborn. This was a man who was on his way to the Hall of Fame. He had done everything a baseball player could ever do as a pitcher. He was the greatest…Was. And then he let his pride come between his good sense and the Hall of Fame. Had he not went to Congress, Brian McNamee would have never told Congress that he personally injected him with steroids and the Feds would have never dug up the decade long affair he had with a country music singer – beginning when he was 28 and she was 15. My uncle, God bless him, has many flaws. I am not going to into all of that. But I will say that he has many flaws. But one thing that he said to me rings with me to this day and it always will; anger clouds your judgment. Anger indeed clouded Mr. Clemens’ judgment.
He opened himself up and now, he may go down the hardest. The two arguably best players of their generation – Bonds and Clemens; a pitcher and hitter – may have their lives destroyed because their baseball careers certainly are. And it all comes down to pride and anger. Both men are too prideful and too angry to admit the truth and they may in fact go down in flames. This whole steroids thing is just crazy and you know what, trust that more players have taken steroids than we will ever know. And let me say this to my political heads; when it comes all things personified as American – from Elvis to Apple pie – Congress will intervene when they feel necessary and that includes Baseball. They will spend time and money on America’s past time; they will go to hell in back to protect America’s game.
If I were to say that cats like Mantle, Ruth, Mays and Aaron could have been on the juice it would be consider blasphemy, but it would not shock me if they did. But I don’t think that they did. And there are a few current players that never took steroids either. So let me make the declaration that the best Baseball player in the last 30 years – better than Bonds, Clemens, and A-Rod – is the man by the name of George Kenneth Griffey Jr.; 22 seasons, 630 HR’s and no steroids. He is the greatest HR hitter that we’ve ever seen. Let me lay out the case quickly. In 2002 through 2004, Griffey only played in 42% of his scheduled games (206 out of 486). From 1989 to 2001, Griffey average 35 HR’s a season (460 HR’s in 13 years). Had he had 35 HR’s in 2002, 2003, and 2004, combined with his yearly HR totals for the rest of his career, he would have finished with a total of 727 HR’s for his career (And it is safe to say that he would have had more than 35 HR’s per year in 2002 through 2004). He was the legitimate challenger to Hank Aaron and 755. So…we may never see another Griffey ever again. That is sad for young Black youth. And unless we can increase baseball fields in our parks and open spaces in our heavily populated Black areas, it looks like Baseball will remain an “old Negro” sport. Then again, that might not be a bad thing since steroid use sends a message that you can cheat to get by. That is not a message I would want my son to receive, nor the hundreds of thousands of young impressionable kids all over our nation, particularly the individuals who start in this world with considerably less. This old game indeed needs to change its new message.

© ClarkMiller Publishing, 2010

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