‘Take me out to the ball game’ unknown tune for many fans
by Brian Shults, se news editor

    All Major League Baseball records will be broken in the 21st Century, provided the fans stick around to watch.

    Support for baseball has waned this past decade, and die-hard fans are gritting their teeth hoping the game stays intact.

    Last week, team owners gathered in Chicago and voted to euthanize two teams because their town quit supporting them.

    No fan support, no money revenue, no baseball—we all lose.

    The Minnesota Twins and the Montreal Expos are the top prospects for elimination. Their days have been numbered for quite awhile.

    The Expos are guilty only of impersonating a real major league ballclub. In reality, they serve as a high-profile farm team for the rest of baseball. Every time the Expos nurture a player through their minor league system and give him a few years in the majors to prove himself, they are unable to resign the player.

    Montreal citizens are neglecting their team, despite some of the finest young talent having worn the Expos uniform. The average attendance at each game this year was less than 8,000.

    In the face of the recently announced contraction, 2001 has been an exceptional year for baseball.

    The World Series between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the New York Yankees lasted the full seven games. The year’s Series included a home run in the bottom of the ninth with two outs by the Yankees in consecutive games, both of which they won in extra innings.

    Nevertheless, the Diamond-backs managed to turn their luck around when they returned for the final two games in Phoenix.

    Game seven appeared to have Yankees written all over it. They were ahead by one run and had the best closer in World Series history pitching, Mariano Rivera, who up to that point had never blown a playoff series.

    Mark Grace led off the ninth inning and made the first incision into the Yankee mystique, letting the bleeding begin.

    His hit was followed by an error, a RBI double by Tony Womack to tie the game, a hit batter and a soft single into left field to drive home the winning run by MVP candidate Luis Gonzales.

    More people watched this year’s World Series than any series in the past 10 years. In this century, let’s hope America will remember baseball still retains the qualities that have enthralled fans for the last 100 years.

    Families can buy a couple of right-field bleacher seats, bring a glove and with any luck catch a home run.

    The quality of play is becoming better each year; it’s the fading fan support and economics that might cripple America’s pastime.

    I am not vying for any sentimental atavism to return to the way the game used to be. I believe it’s better than ever.

    This season Barry Bonds shattered Mark McGwire’s single season home run record, leaving the bar at 73.

    McGwire’s record stood for only three seasons; previously, the record had been collecting dust since ’61.

    Ricky Henderson also broke an ancient record of 2,245 career runs scored set by Ty Cobb.

    As lofty as both these records are, they are vulnerable. Every record is susceptible including Hack Wilson’s single-season RBI record, Nolan Ryan’s career strikeouts and the coveted home run record of 755 set by Hank Aaron.

    If the Chicago Cubs’ Sammy Sosa is infused with the adrenaline of another pennant race and has a couple of batters in front of him who know how to get on base, 191 RBIs might not be enough to hold the record.

    Ryan’s strikeout record is probably the most difficult hurdle.

    Few individuals are comprised of Ryan’s dominance and stamina, but the Strikeout King will have a few players looking over his shoulder.

    Active players who have a chance are Randy Johnson, Kerry Wood and Pedro Martinez.

    Johnson is an unlikely candidate because he is too old, but I would be hard pressed to say that to the face of a 6-foot-10-inch giant with a 100 mph fastball.

    Wood, a Grand Prairie native, is young enough and can strikeout anyone in the game. If he can stay healthy, he has the best shot.

    Martinez has an uncanny ability to manipulate physics to his benefit. However, he is not solely a strikeout pitcher and is more likely to break other pitching records.

    Aaron’s home run record will be the most exciting one to see go. It is justly the highest regarded record in sports.

    Aaron had to overshadow the imperious Babe Ruth to get there, and someone else will be there to do the same to him.

    Recently, Aaron said Ken Griffey Jr. had the best chance, but that was before Alex Rodriguez proved his mettle as the “real deal.”

    Griffey is by no means out of the race. But he needs to come into his own in Cincinnati or move to a different team (maybe to a real park with grass instead of an Astroturf “cookie cutter” would be an appropriate change).

    If Griffey breaks Aaron’s record, A-Rod will break Griffey’s. At 26, A-Rod has a sizeable jump on Aaron and Griffey, during the same point in their careers. Technically, he is not a home run hitter; his line drives just regularly fly 350 feet and over. Fifty-two home runs this year seems a formidable pace.

    Never before have so many players hit so many homeruns than in the past few years. Some say, shortening the mound and a tighter wound ball have compromised the role of the pitcher. It’s nonsense.

    The science of athleticism has improved immeasurably since the Golden Era and will continue to do so. Batters are also using lighter bats to increase bat speed, thereby causing the ball to go farther.

    Expanding the strike zone in 2001 did not stop hitting records from being broken. If pitchers complain that the hitter has the advantage, that advantage is because they quit throwing at hitters who are troublesome, occasionally getting caught with sandpaper or Vaseline to doctor the ball and generally lacking the psychological edge in their games.

    Contraction of two teams will not solve baseball’s woes. I am not sure anyone knows the solution. But I believe the game will endure the same as our country. Baseball is a reflection of America in the 20th Century: it broke down racial barriers and survived wars.

    One can find solace in the notion that every season’s battles end, and each of us has another season to mend last year’s mistakes.