Make Baseball Fun Again

(Credit: CSNMidAtlantic)

First off, I need to thank the legendary Goose Gossage for making this article possible. During spring training this year our beloved Goose went on a fiery, expletive filled tirade about the new generations of players that show-boat, flip bats after home runs, and make incendiary comments to the media. Goose went on to complain that this behavior has no place in baseball, the players need to just shut up and do their jobs, and that their actions were destroying the hallowed traditions of baseball. Goose, I am sorry but I respectfully disagree. To be fair to Goose, after reading his comments multiple times I can find the point that he is trying to make. He is making a valid, albeit jumbled, argument that baseball players now have it easy because those of Gossage’s generation fought for the luxuries that this new class of ball players enjoy. Gossage entered the league in 1972 and at that time the Major League Baseball Players Association was just getting their feet wet. There were a multitude of changes in those early years of the MLBPA and the big leagues saw their first player strike in 1972, Gossage’s first year in the league. A few years later there was another player strike in ‘81 over free agent compensation. As irony would have it, Gossage’s last year in the league ended with the 1994-95 strike that resulted in the cancellation of the entire post-season and World Series. Because of this strike, MLB became the first major professional sports league to lose an entire postseason due to labor struggles. After looking at the time period in baseball history that Gossage is relating, and drawing his argument from, it becomes clearer why he was so upset. The roughly twenty years Goose spent in league were tumultuous and it makes sense as to why he reacted the way he did. While it seems thus far that I am defending Gossage’s angry rant, I can assure you I am not. It would be unfair however to not present his case before diving into a counter argument.

After hearing Gossage’s take on the current state of Major League Baseball it is easy to picture him as the old grumpy uncle that is stuck living in the past and struggling to adapt with times. And speaking of the current state of Major League Baseball, it is time to turn to the player who is close if not already to becoming the face of the league, Bryce Harper. The 23-year-old right fielder out of Las Vegas broke into the Major Leagues in 2012 and has since been absolutely lighting it up. But after Gossage’s tirade, Harper responded with his own thoughts on the current state of affairs in an article for ESPN The Magazine claiming that “baseball is a tired sport” and he is not wrong. Baseball is a tired sport and the players have lost the fire and the love of the game that caused them to push themselves to the limit and become professional baseball players. Baseball players have lost their sense of self, their character, and what makes them fun to watch. They have become robots that take the field, play nine innings, give their locker room interviews with the media, go to sleep and repeat the next day. It is the exact opposite of what sports fans were graced with this NFL season and the Carolina Panthers. They are a dynamic, young team that absolutely dominated the competition and they let everyone know. They put their personal stamp on the game, they danced and celebrated when they scored and best of all they did it with huge grins on their faces because they were chasing perfection and they were having fun doing it. It is important to recognize that while Panthers were braggarts and flaunted their excellence, they did not do it in a vindictive way. They were not synonymous with the University of Miami football team of the 80s. The Panthers acted the way they did because they were enjoying the game they love to play. What has been lost in sports tradition, especially baseball, is the simple fact that at the end of the day, it is just a game and it should be fun. Bryce Harper has now made it his mission to change the game and it should be encouraged, not discouraged. To watch Harper come up to the plate first hand is an incredible feeling. Everytime he steps into the batter’s box a buzz spreads throughout the stadium, the fans are on their feet letting out their excitement, expecting something big to happen and a majority of the time something huge does happen. The game today is blessed with incredible athletes but does not show enough character. When guys like Harper, Yasiel Puig or Jose Bautista get up and crush a ball 435ft out of the ballpark celebration should be encouraged. It’s the same as Cam Newton running in a touchdown and doing his signature SuperCam celebration. The fans love it, young kids idolize and mimic the character that these athletes express. The desire to celebrate promotes a sports culture that demands excellence, but for some reason baseball players instantly get demonized for expressing any form of passion after a big play. When these big hitters like Harper step up to the plate it should be an absolute battle with the pitcher. If and when Jose Fernandez strikes him out he should stare him down, pump his fist and get fired up. Harper in turn should acknowledge it and come up in his next at-bat, jack a fastball over the centerfield wall and return the favor.  Players like Harper are polarizing, larger than life guys and baseball needs more of them or else more and more fans will turn away from the game. We are seeing it now, in ballparks across the country, empty seats everywhere it is an epidemic. Gone are the days when fans would heckle, cheer, boo, really get involved in the game, and that is because there are so few players left that make them want to get involved. The fun is being drained from the game of baseball.    

In order to pump life back into the game it is necessary for baseball to adapt with the times. Tradition is synonymous with baseball, it’s America’s Pastime and has been for over a century. There is an unspoken code in baseball that all the players know and follow. But this code is not what it once was. Baseball has certainly seen a dip in entertainment, for lack of a better word, in the last decade or so. Gone are the dugout clearing brawls, the shouting matches with umpire’s, and the iconic sports rivalries have devolved into playground slap fests. If you do not believe me, take it from recently retired, first ballot future Hall of Famer Derek Jeter who spoke with Seth Meyers about the changing atmosphere. Even the fans, specifically for Jeter, Red Sox fans have softened. If the Yankees, Red Sox rivalry has been downgraded to a pillow fight then there is clearly a problem. Any serious baseball fan can remember the 2003 ALCS when Pedro Martinez, then pitching with the Red Sox, threw 72-year-old (at the time) Yankees bench coach Don Zimmer to the ground in the middle of the infield. As heinous as Pedro’s actions were, it does not deflate the fact that in the not so distant past, baseball was a completely different sport. During Gossage’s day it was these types of actions, brawls, and more violent actions that fueled the passion for baseball for both the players and the fans. Over the last decade the culture of baseball has certainly softened, now when brawls breakout players get suspended and chastised for their actions so obviously to avoid the repercussions, players have become much more cautious about their actions. In Gossage’s day brawls and such were commonplace but no longer. The excitement and energy that made baseball so entertaining in the recent past is gone. There is however a way for this new generation of ball players. The brawls, rivalries are synonymous with the past generation of ball players and if baseball is going to adapt to the current culture then the Odell Beckham Jr’s and LeBron James’ of baseball need to step into the spotlight. It is time for this current generation to make their mark on the game not act like uniformed robots swinging pieces of wood around a field. Unfortunately for Goose, baseball can recapture the spark that instills a passionate furor in the fans by allowing and encouraging players to express themselves, show the flair that makes them who they are, and give young fans people to aspire to be. Bryce Harper is on a mission to make baseball fun again, for the sake of baseball I hope he succeeds.