Respect the Game

February 10

It’s baseball’s version of Watergate. And although we may not be asking “Where were you when Alex Rodriguez was caught?” I certainly will never forget.

It was during our Saturday morning practice and I was hitting off a tee, waiting for my turn in the batting cage. That’s when head coach Jon Martin relayed the news that he had received through a text message from a friend.

“A-Rod took ‘roids’!” he shouted across the gym.

Everyone seemed to stop what they were doing. Shouts of “I knew it,” “No way,” and even some expressions of joy from Red Sox fans echoed throughout the gym. But team loyalties aside, as we talked the rest of practice about A-Rod, we all agreed that it was bad for baseball. The phrase “respect the game” seems to get thrown around in baseball more than in any other sport. It’s why you don’t just walk on and off the field instead of hustling, it’s why you don’t throw the ball on the rubber when the manager makes a pitching change, and it’s why you don’t spit on the umpire after a bad call. It’s why you don’t bet on the game, it’s why you don’t throw the World Series and it’s why you don’t take steroids.

More than any other sport, baseball seems to be bigger than the individual player. It’s bigger than one game or one season even. Baseball has history. And its history forever looms over the present. It’s so natural to have a conversation about baseball that evolves into a comparison between a player of today and one of the past. How often do you hear questions like, “Who was a better fielder? Willy Mayes or Jim Edmonds?” or, “Who had a better arm? Roberto Clemente or Vlad Guerro?” Baseball has stood the test of time, and it this transcendence of time that separates baseball from any other sport.

Everyone on the Vassar squad loves baseball. It’s why we practice six days out of the week and twice on Saturdays. And, baseball has been good to us in return. Baseball has enabled me to travel to different states, even different countries to play in tournaments. It’s enabled me to meet some of my best friends and to build my character. And so we play on. And so, we respect the game. It’s the least we can do in return.