North Star Writers Group

In 1866, Charles A. Peverelly wrote, “The game of baseball has now become beyond question the leading feature of the outdoor sports of the United States ... It is a game which is peculiarly suited to the American temperament and disposition; ... in short, the pastime suits the people, and the people suit the pastime.” As America’s pastime seems, finally, to be escaping one of its darkest chapters, the stain left behind is worse than you might think.

Along with being illegal, PEDs (performance-enhancing drugs) have negative side-effects that range from severe acne and high blood pressure to liver tumors, kidney tumors and cancer. Professional use of PEDs not only sets a bad example for younger athletes, but more practically, it becomes especially difficult for the “clean” athletes to keep up with the users.

Since the record-breaking seasons of Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds helped bring attention to the rampant substance-abuse problems, Major League Baseball, led by commissioner, Bud Selig, has taken significant strides toward purging itself of cheating and healing its wounded reputation. The league’s overall slugging percentage and home runs per game are the lowest in years, and as statistics are deflating, so are players’ bodies. Humans, it appears, are once again leading the way for MLB – and we have politicians like John McCain to thank.

McCain began pressuring the league to address the issue in March of 2004, saying, “[MLB’s] failure to commit to addressing this issue straight on and immediately will motivate this committee to search for legislative remedies.” Observing little progress, he continued his threats in December of the same year. “I’ll give them until January [to enact stiffer policies], and then I’ll introduce legislation.” Even President Bush chimed in during his State of the Union Address in 2004, saying, “Tonight I call on team owners, union representatives, coaches, and players to take the lead, to send the right signal, to get tough, and to get rid of steroids now.”

Over one and a half years since their initial appearance on MLB’s stage, numerous politicians are still pressuring the league and the players union to agree on stiffer policies. Jim Bunning, a Senator from Kentucky, declared, “If pro sports leagues don’t get a handle on this problem on their own … legislation becomes a matter of when, not if.”

One could argue that, since baseball is as intrinsically American as our government itself, their collaboration to address a consequential issue is a compelling testament to American nationalism. That one would be some sort of wanker.

If you had to paint a picture that represented everything American, would you paint Congress or Wrigley Field, the Oval Office or home plate, the Red Sox battling the Yankees or the Republicans battling the Democrats? I’ll take the stars and stripes waving above the stands in center field over the flag on the White House front lawn any day the home team is in town. If politicians invade our national pastime in any capacity, it should be by booing and cheering with everyone else in attendance, standing with their hands on their hearts like every other fan and ballplayer as a local high school choir sings the words of Francis Scott Key.

The nature of the wound that PEDs inflicted on baseball is like any other. Until addressed, it only got worse – the slower the treatment, the more permanent the scars. But for my eyes, that Bud Selig’s laxity brought about political intervention is much more vulgar a canker than a phony home run record.

Baseball is an escape from the politics, the greed, the terrifying international events, the increasingly depressing reality of our world. It is a symbol of American striving, American progress, and American freedom – that one piece of paradise the politicians could not and would not spoil by suggesting that humans need excessive legislation in order to act decently. But now, whenever we recall some of its darkest years, we will have to acknowledge that America’s pastime needed governmental assistance. Almost a century and a half after its genesis, America’s paradise was temporarily lost.

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