Bread and Circuses

We would have ripped the Babe apart in cyberspace. As we see with Barry Bonds it’s not the size of the sin in the sinner, but the size of the sinner who sins. The bigger the target the harder we hit. And Babe Ruth was a big target, physically and in society. How would we have done it?

Let’s start with the drinking. The man was a known substance abuser. Hit the sauce hard. Wasn’t always 100% at game time. Bad example for the youth of America.

Rumors? What papers didn’t print we’d go with. That stomach ache that kept him out of the lineup? Social disease. Count on it. Sources? We don’t need no stinking sources.

Unmet expectations. Sure, he hit 60 HR. But if he took care of himself it could easily have been 80. When you see a guy like Al Simmons out there early every day taking BP to make himself into a consistent .350 hitter and contrast that to Ruth’s training routine it makes you wonder how much of Ruth’s talent we’ll never see on display.

Cheapened records. How are we supposed to evaluate players in this home run crazy era Ruth has brought on. There are people who have seen both Ruth and old Buck Freeman play who swear that if Freeman played today he’d put up numbers that would make you forget Ruth.

Disrespect for his manager. You hold your manager by the ankles over the edge of a moving railroad car and nothing happens? What have we come to when this sort of behavior is tolerated. We all know there are two sets of rules on the team. One for Ruth and one for everyone else. But Huggins could have been killed. Someone has to stop him before he either gets himself or someone else killed or seriously injured.

We hate the Yankees. So I’m a RedSox fan. Why am I supposed to keep following the sport of the Yankees can just swoop in with an open wallet and buy the best player in baseball?

It’s the ball park. House that Ruth built? What about the House that was Built for Ruth? All those cheap home runs he hit at the Polo Grounds and now they build a new park with a short right field porch.

The game has changed and not for the better. What happened to bunting to set up a run? What happened to the beauty of a tight pitched game? Speed on the bases? Now, Ruth has given us least common denominator baseball. Ignore the little things that make the game great and sit back and wait for three run home runs. Sure, he got 60 home runs. By striking out 89 times.

The New York media. All we hear is Babe Ruth, Babe Ruth. Well, in case you didn’t notice, there is this fellow named Harry Heilmann who hit .398 for Detroit. Drove in 120 runs. Hit a dozen homers in a park where you have to earn them. And, by the way, only struck out 16 times. But did anyone notice? Noooooooo. The New York sportswriters don’t have time for anyone who doesn’t play with the Giants or Yankees. 60 HRS trumps .398.

Liberal disapproval. Society suffers while we pay outrageous salaries to sports stars. See the bread lines? See the stock brokers jumping out windows? See the poor kids leaving school to work to help their families? All the while we pay a Babe Ruth $70,000 a year. Do you have any idea what a school teacher in the Bronx makes? Besides, he went into the Army during Wilson’s war. A kid from the slums like Ruth should have refused to go to set an example for the exploited kids who went to Europe to protect the interests of John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil.

Conservative disapproval. I never thought I’d see the day an athlete would say something like that. They ask him, “Why should you be paid more than the President of the United States?” And what does he say?

“What the Hell has Hoover got to do with it? Besides, I had a better year than he did.” I don’t appreciate the language, and I surely don’t appreciate the disrespect shown to President Hoover.

The race card. None of these records mean anything. Ruth plays in an all-white league and isn’t facing all the best talent. What has he said about this injustice? Nothing. You’re part of the problem or part of the solution. Besides, Ruth is Maryland. What do you expect?

The Commissioner needs to draw a line in the sand for these rowdies. They are ruining the image of the game. Driving too fast, living too large, no respect for authority. Mark my words, twenty years from now nobody will care about baseball. They are going to kill the goose that laid the golden eggs.

Oh well, at least he’s not Ty Cobb.