Baseball Needs a Pit Stop

Baseball is America’s pastime. There are movies made about it, songs made about it, and money made from it. The money goes to charities, criminals, and the rich. It creates traffic jams, bar fights, love, and hatred. Millions of people watch baseball live every year, and even more watch it on the television. The players are used to sell everything from shoes, to deodorant, to Viagra. Baseball brings families together and tears them apart. Kids want to be baseball players, and parents want their kids to be baseball players because baseball players are the modern day heroes, and everyone wants to be a hero. Heroes are large part of our history, and baseball’s heroes are no exception. History is one of baseball’s most cherished aspects.

So when someone says it’s just baseball, all they’re saying is that they wish it was just baseball, but it’s not. It’s not just a game anymore. Nothing is a game anymore when there are billions of dollars involved, people’s careers are on the line, and its players are national icons. When a kid who loves a baseball player sees him wearing a red wrist band, he will wear that wrist band. When he sees the player tap the home plate with his bat, the kid will tap home plate with his bat. If the player’s cheek is bulging because he has a wad of tobacco in it, then a kid will put a wad of bubble gum in his cheek, if we’re lucky. If a kid finds out that a baseball player is taking performance enhancement drugs then the pattern is likely to continue. The steroid issue is a big deal right now, but in my opinion not big enough. They’re still getting away with it right in front of our eyes? Why hasn’t it been addressed properly and more efficiently? Because baseball must go on. Baseball either needs to go all out and stuff this steroid issue into the history books, or throw in the towel and let it happen. The middle of the road path is wearing thin, and it’s causing nothing but controversy. I’d hate to suggest a year without baseball to fix this, but what we have right now is crumbling at the base.