Baseball's steroid controversy will not only tarnish the reputations of a few players, but quite possibly the sport's previously immortal place in American culture. The following is a case for eradicating all statistical milestones of the past 10 years, else risking the future meaninglessness of The American Pastime.
When Barry Bonds steps to the plate for the first time in April of this year, he should be continuing a quest of mythic proportions. A record- a number- which has not only stood for decades, but has been a tale of greatness, success, and opportunity through those decades, may soon be eclipsed. Seven-hundred and fifty-five homeruns. The dream of an individual great enough to achieve such a pinnacle should be the stuff of legends.
But such a mythical drama is not to be.
- BASEBALL STATISTICS AND THE GREAT AMERICAN DRAMA -
Baseball, unlike any other sport, is followed- even by the common fan- through statistics and numbers. Sure- football, basketball, and hockey have their historic numbers and milestones here and there. But the very structure of baseball itself has moved its reams of statistics to move from the realm of fodder for geeks to the realm of The Great American Drama, which all fans- casual and hard-core, share.
Like the idealized American Dream is supposed to work in real life, in baseball every man stands on his own with equal chance and equal responsibility. Unlike other sports, no man can hide behind his teammates. Every man bats alone, and in turn. While at bat, the entire game momentarily but completely rests on the shoulders of the batter. Every fielder guards a certain plot of the field alone. If a ball is batted to his plot of land, more often than not, he cannot choose to have a better equipped fielder handle the responsibility of defense in that moment.
Every individual must partake, and every individual is judged accordingly. And thus, through this forced model of equality, baseball statistics have meaning. Meaning not only in the realm of "which player is better than who," but meaning that transcends the sport itself.
The universe of baseball statistics is modern America's Shakespeare. Throughout history, our cultural dramas have often been played through the chase for certain baseball milestones.
- NUMBERS, DREAMS AND HOPE -
715 was not just a line-item record of the most homeruns hit in a career. 715 was the story of the struggle of a black man who began his career in the predominantly white culture of baseball, and consistently redefined success as something that did not know racial boundaries. Because every man theoretically has an equal chance in baseball, one could not deny that in certain aspects of the game, Henry Aaron was "better" than every other man before him.
61 was not just an interesting single season milestone in 1961. It was the story of a generational changing of the guard. A scrappy and essentially unremarkable Roger Maris from North Dakota was given the same chance as the storied Babe Ruth thirty-four years before him, and somehow did him one better. And there is a reason the validity record itself was debated for years afterward. It wasn't because of a necessity for nice, clean accounting- it was because the record meant something.
