A couple of weeks ago, my son Nick and I went to Wrigley Field to see the Cubs play the Padres. We had chosen this particular game for two reasons; one, because most of the other Cub games were already sold out when we went on line in March to find tickets, and two, because we were hoping to see our one and only hometown major leaguer – Joe Thatcher, who for two seasons had bounced back and forth between San Diego and their AAA team in Portland.
Upon returning home, I took a few minutes to see the damage this trip had cost us.
Tickets: $130
Parking: $30
Concessions/Souvenirs: $70
Not counting gas and one night’s lodging, we had spent over $200 to watch the likes of Rich Harden, Mike Fontenot, Milton Bradley, and Bobby Scales. I can’t even remember any Padres from that night except Jake Peavy. What a bargain.
Flash forward two weeks. I am reading a book about baseball, and the following thought occurred to me: If you were a baseball fan in 1960, and who wasn’t a baseball fan back then, and you were inclined to go and watch a ball game, you could go to any major league park on any given day and walk right up to the ticket window. Once inside, it’s likely that one or more of the following would have been in the lineup that day:
Ted Williams, Stan Musial, Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, Sandy Koufax, Roberto Clemente, Yogi Berra, Don Drysdale, Roger Maris, Frank Robinson, Duke Snider, Whitey Ford, Billy Williams, Luis Aparicio, Bob Gibson, Al Kaline, Harmon Killebrew, Willie McCovey. If any of those Hall of Famers were in the lineup, it’s a good bet that the card was written out by Casey Stengal, Walter Alston, Al Lopez, or Lou Boudreau. And if you took a transistor radio to the park, the action would have been described by the likes of Harry Carey, Red Barber, Jack Brickhouse, Mel Allen, or Ernie Harwell.
The fact is, a team that you could put together from players on major league rosters that year would wipe the floor with a team consisting of the stars of any other era in the history of the game. Period.
Who do we have to stand in awe of today? Alex Rodriguez, the cheating PR machine? Manny Ramirez, the cheating ego maniac?
I once had the opportunity to see Donald Davidson, the pre-eminent Indy 500 expert/historian. It was a question and answer event, and I asked him what he thought the greatest era of the 500 was. His answer surprised me, but the accompanying explanation did not. Expecting to hear names like Foyt, Unser, Mears, Johncock, Andretti, etc., he named guys I had never heard of from the early 50’s. He then said that it’s only natural for fans to idolize the guys who were popular when we first begin to follow a particular sport. This makes perfect sense, but does it apply to this discussion? C’mon.
When one of the players from 1960’s era would get to the coveted $100,000 salary, we applauded and stood in awe, mostly because normal people can comprehend what $100,000 is. When we read about A Rod and $252 million, we sneer with contempt because none of us has even the slightest notion of what that really means. It’s Monopoly money, and baseball (pro sports) has become something that is beyond the average man’s paradigm.
Baseball still has a large following of young fans, and that’s a good thing. But the names on my list are as far removed from today’s 12 year old as Woodrow Wilson and Jack Dempsey are from my generation. What do we as fans really have to look forward to?
Tony Soprano lamented the fact that he was getting in on his way of life (organized crime) at the end of the line, way past the glory days. Is this reality or just the Donald Davidson perception? I guess we’ll never know.
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