Looking for Heroes in a Material World

The sports talk shows have been abuzz for the last week. Alex Rodriguez took anabolic steroids. It was the latest in a bizarre series of events for the New York Yankee’s third baseman. Rodriguez attracted notoriety over the last year when his divorce proceedings uncovered a strange relationship with Madonna, one in which she was accused of using a rabbi to brainwash him with the teachings of Kabbalah, a form a Jewish mysticism. But it’s not the Material Girl that has the baseball world in a frenzy. Instead, it’s the revelation that A-Rod took performance enhancing drugs from 2001 to 2003, during which he hit 156 of his 553 career homers.

A-Rod is just the latest in a line of fallen stars, victims of themselves—McGuire, Bonds, Giambi—some loved by fans, others hated. But they all shared one thing—they cheated and they tarnished baseball for many years, if not forever. What baseball needs is a few more true heroes.
When I was a kid, I always wanted to be number 44. I wasn’t alone. Who could blame us? He was an Atlanta Brave. And he was a hero. Hank Aaron was a tremendous player and a man of character. The only thing he was dosed up on was resolve. He broke Babe Ruth’s homerun record, but in doing so quite possibly changed the world. He hit 755 career home runs in 23 seasons—none on performance enhancing drugs.

And what of Dale Murphy? For so many years, he was the face of the Braves. Despite two MVP awards and hitting 398 homeruns, he has been snubbed by the hall of fame. But Murph is most memorable for being another man of true character. No dugout fights with teammates. No clear and cream. Instead, his face adorned milk cartons and ice cream ads.

Baseball survived the Black Sox scandal and Pete Rose, and it will certain survive steroids. But it may take a few truckloads of asterisks to clean up this mess? What baseball needs is a few more heroes—a few more men like Aaron and Murphy.