Baseball just ain't what it used it be.
Yogi Berra, a 10-time World Series champion, once said, “the future ain't what it used to be.” Looking at Major League Baseball today, there are signs that young players don't have the knowledge and respect of the past like players from the past did. Legendary slugger Babe Ruth would talk hit non-stop from train rides between road trips. Forty years later Roger Maris, the man who went on to break Ruth's single season home run record, spoke about the “Babe.”
"I don't want to be Babe Ruth,” said Maris in 1961. “He was a great ballplayer. I'm not trying to replace him. The record is there and damn right I want to break it, but that isn't replacing Babe Ruth.
Maris knew who the Babe was and understood his legacy to the game of baseball. Today, young prospects coming seem to have lost that understanding. I was reading a story on MLB.com by Matt Monagan, who recanted about Orioles' prospect Josh Hart, and how he did not know who Frank Robinson was.
Robinson, who was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982, is one of the greatest living ex-Major League players. He played six seasons for the Orioles from 1966-1971, winning two World Series championships with the club. In 1966, he won the American League MVP and Triple Crown. Robinson led the AL with a .316 batting average, 49 home runs and 122 runs batted in. He also led the league with 122 runs scored and a .410 on base percentage.
If fans were to create the Mount Rushmore of all-time Orioles' hitters, then Robinson would be a clear-cut choice. It's sad to see that prospects from the Orioles or any organization for that matter, who do not understand the legacies left by the past. Hart met Robinson once and didn't realize he was a Hall of Famer. Hart didn't even know who the man was.
To not know or understand the past is to condemn your own future. Orioles' manager Buck Showalter, a lifelong student of the game, is making Hart write a one-page term paper about Robinson. I love the idea because it forces Hart to learn about the legends who came before him. At the same time, I believe it is disappointing Showalter would resort to this, and that's no fault of Showalters.
I talk to young baseball players (high school prospects, college, minor leagues, etc) and some have no clue about the history of the game. Some are reclined to believe the past should stay dead and how they believe they're the future. There is no future in anything, let alone baseball, if you don't understand how it was forged in the first place.
There is one man I want to note here. Joseph Nardini, publisher of County Baseball Publications in New Jersey, runs a website called New Jersey Baseball Magazine. I've known Nardini for five years and he is a big believer in understanding the history of the game. He umpires at local youth games, including games at Cooperstown Dreams Park. While there, he strikes up conversations with anyone about the history of baseball. It's a truly a sight to be hold.
Nardini played baseball as well. He was a college baseball player with great potential. Instead of being a role model on the field, Nardini became one off it. He advises young writers and players how to properly respect the history of the game. There needs to be an increase of people like Nardini who understand the history of the game and wish to pass it on to others. There is no stopping anyone who wants to learn. Minor League and Major League Baseball Players should be required to read about baseball history for an hour a day during Spring Training. If players took the time to learn about what makes baseball so historic, then there would be less conflict. Players may learn to lose their egos and follow the lessons learned in the past.
Irish philosopher Edmund Burke once said, “those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it.” Minor League prospects like Hart need to understand the importance of the past.
By understanding and building from the past, baseball will become better than what it was.
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