ALBERT PUJOLS knows that people do not believe him. He does not just know it, he lives it, breathes it, he takes it with him into the batting cage in Jupiter, Fla., on a hazy mosquito day at the St. Louis Cardinals' spring training complex. Pujols stretches out into his familiar batting stance-legs wide apart, bat quivering high above his shoulder, head up in an oddly proud way, like he's a soldier sitting on a horse, like he's posing for posterity. A batting practice pitcher throws, and Pujols rockets hard line drive after hard line drive. People marvel at how much louder and fuller the ball sounds coming off his bat than off the bat of anyone else. That sound used to make heroes. Now, it only cements his guilt in the minds of the most cynical in the great American jury.
This is the uncompromising math of 2009: The more Albert Pujols hits, the less those cynics will believe him.
He will not stop hitting, of course. That is no option. He hit his way out of the Dominican Republic. He hit his way into the American dream. In his eight years in the major leagues, Pujols, still only 29, has never hit less than .314, never hit fewer than 32 home runs, never driven in fewer than 103 runs, never finished out of the Top 10 in the MVP balloting. He is the Best Player in Baseball.
But this is not a great time to be the best anything in baseball. Barry Bonds was the best player, and now he is facing federal perjury charges. Roger Clemens was the best pitcher, and every other day another newspaper story takes him down one more notch. Mark McGwire was the best home run hitter, and after telling Congress that he did not want to talk about the past, he has all but disappeared into a Pynchon-like seclusion. Alex Rodriguez was the best player, and now he tentatively admits guilt while A-ROID! headlines splash and fans heckle and a hip injury shuts him down.
"We're in this era where people want to judge other people," Pujols says. "And that's so sad." He would like to leave it with those three words-that's so sad-but then people might wonder.
So he continues: "But it's like I always say, 'Come and test me. Come and do whatever you want.' Because you know what? There is something more important to me-my relationship with Jesus Christ and caring about others. More than this baseball. This baseball is nothing to me."
He stops cold. He shakes his head. Those words don't do him any good either. This is more of the uncompromising math of 2009: The more he denies, the less people will believe him.
Sports Illustrated 3/16/2009, Vol. 110 Issue 11, p28-34
This is the uncompromising math of 2009: The more Albert Pujols hits, the less those cynics will believe him.
He will not stop hitting, of course. That is no option. He hit his way out of the Dominican Republic. He hit his way into the American dream. In his eight years in the major leagues, Pujols, still only 29, has never hit less than .314, never hit fewer than 32 home runs, never driven in fewer than 103 runs, never finished out of the Top 10 in the MVP balloting. He is the Best Player in Baseball.
But this is not a great time to be the best anything in baseball. Barry Bonds was the best player, and now he is facing federal perjury charges. Roger Clemens was the best pitcher, and every other day another newspaper story takes him down one more notch. Mark McGwire was the best home run hitter, and after telling Congress that he did not want to talk about the past, he has all but disappeared into a Pynchon-like seclusion. Alex Rodriguez was the best player, and now he tentatively admits guilt while A-ROID! headlines splash and fans heckle and a hip injury shuts him down.
"We're in this era where people want to judge other people," Pujols says. "And that's so sad." He would like to leave it with those three words-that's so sad-but then people might wonder.
So he continues: "But it's like I always say, 'Come and test me. Come and do whatever you want.' Because you know what? There is something more important to me-my relationship with Jesus Christ and caring about others. More than this baseball. This baseball is nothing to me."
He stops cold. He shakes his head. Those words don't do him any good either. This is more of the uncompromising math of 2009: The more he denies, the less people will believe him.
Sports Illustrated 3/16/2009, Vol. 110 Issue 11, p28-34
Thinking about Pujols' perspective on this issue brought me back to our conversation in class. Considering the discussion of (almost irrational) fanaticism associated with sports worldwide, something doesn't seem to add up. On one hand, we supposedly crave the escapism and seemingly supernatural elements of professional athletes and, on the other, we as a culture consistently attempt to debunk those same idolized athletes (a discussion from a few weeks ago). It's as though we want to prove that the sports world is false, but live in in while we still can. Something is fueling this two-faced tendency. . .
The question: Why do we long for escape into the world of supernatural, sports stars only to secretly wish they were all frauds?
30 comments:
A handful of all-star athletes over time have been proven to be using illegal substances to enhance their abilities. Even though there are a TON of other athletes out there who don't do this, it's this handful that have created doubts in our minds. Society hasn't lost its fascination with the escapism sports provide, but has instead taken it as reason to suspect athletes and become cynics of the sports.
It's the same with movie stars and famous singers. We love them, but we hate them. We love them because of what they can do, sing, dance, play a sport, act, etc, we love them for entertainment purposes. But we also love to critize them. Even though no one is perfect, the stars are so deep in the public eye, you see all of their faults and we critize them for it . . .
I think it's the whole thing that we love who we hate and hate who we love. We want to see our favorite sport star/entertainer/actor succeed, but then we want to see them as human too - by making mistakes. I thin it makes them more real to us if they're not perfect all the time.
I think we long for the escape from reality that sporting events offer us, but at the same time, we like knowing what we're watching is real. Or, the people playing the sport are real. I think as a society, we also like to believe that entertainers, sport stars, whoever, are involved in our lives to a certain extent. We like believing we are a part of their reality. Since this doesn't come true, I think we love to hate them just like movie stars. We love their performance but we also love talking about their lives. Either way, they are a part of our lives because we are talking about them.
I don't believe we have a desire to think that these star athletes are frauds. However, an overwhelming number that have been at the forefront of our sports world have fell victim to the use of steroids. This makes those who actually have the natural abilities and talent, who perform so well, have to live in the shadows of doubt for using performance enhancing drugs.
Maybe it's shadenfreude.
You don't have to agree with that if you don't want to. It's not like I'm trying to be Hegemonious or anything.
maybe, because deep down, many people are jealous of these super stars-their talent and money-and want to justify that pro athletes aren't superhuman by assuming they use drugs. the average person then somehow feels better.
I think that because some of our greatest heroes have disappointed us, we find it hard to trust others. We will be forever skeptics, especially when it comes to those who do things we can't do ourselves.
I think we look at these people as successful, living in these seemingly perfect lives. Then when we find that these people have faults, we feel better about ourselves. I think this goes beyond sports, it goes to anyone who is high profile and followed by the media.
Yup, yup, it's shadenfreude alright.
We love to watch sports stars excel because it amazes us and we're a society that loves to be wowed, but at the same time we love seeing these sports heroes get slammed with a DUI, busted for 'roids, or just hearing that they got a divorce. It makes us feel better about ourselves since we obviously don't measure up to them in athletics.
This idea of escapism is such a fantasy to most that deep down we really want to know that those we idolize are just as human as the rest of us.
As a society we do like idolizing and being a part of stardom and history but at the end of the day we enjoy most belittling others to make ourselves feel better. The world is such a small place these days that nobody is perfect and unfortunately for these athletes as soon as they make one mistake its all over the tabloids and suddenly because we have evidence that they are not human we no longer think they are great...even though we knew they were not perfect from the beginning. I find Albert Pujols comment interesting because at the end of the day all that matters is his relationship with Jesus Christ. This is tremendous insight and humility on his part because he understands that he is not perfect and that people shouldnt be worshiping him. The only person that should be worshiped is Christ.
As far as baseball goes anyway, the MLB and other sportscasters were TRYING to push Alex Rodriguez as a savior type for baseball. As Barry Bonds was setting the all time home run record, everyone knew that he wasnt doing so honestly. The common theme that came from the MLB is that this didnt even matter because A-Rod was going to break it eventually anyways and he would do it the right way. He was going to save baseball. Well it turns out he cheated too and now the MLB has lost its hero. When situations like this occur, when even the most clean cut players turn out to be cheaters too, its only natural for us to doubt everyone else. Pujols might be the cleanest ball player ever but due to the actions of others he will always be viewed with an eye of skepticism.
Over the last decade, because of illegal substances, i feel as if athletes have been under intense speculation. I think we as fans love to see the athleticism and skill that athletes possess. We also love the thrill and competition that a game presents. Thus, we enjoy watching and following particular athletes. However, naturally we are a jealous people and quick to pick out one another's faults. So, when an athlete possibly could have cheated his way up the athletic ladder it's easy for us to assume they messed up. Quite simply, it makes them seem more human and makes us feel better about ourselves.
It's hard for most celebrities and athletes not to disappoint the public in some shape or form since we put them on such high pedestals to start out with. We just need to realize that everyone is human and makes dumb mistakes.
Haha, what an awesome question. I think we want our athletes to be our heroes, but once athlete after athlete turns out to be a phony we are a little more hesitant to believe in them. So I think that we doubt the really good athletes because we don't want to get our hopes up only to have them crushed..again!
I believe that people love watching sports because they enjoy the game, the competition and secretly wish they had the same abilities as the sports superstarts. However, they despise the sports world at the same time because most don't have extraordinary sports ability, and are therefore only observers of the professional sports world.
I think a little part of us likes to hear about the shady things that sports stars do or have done, because it helps us cope with the stupid things we have done in our past.
I don't really like it how celebrities are now idols and people to really believe in. I do remember back when Mia Hamm was my favorite though. She was someone that just had the talent and was someone to aspire to. We need to knock these sports stars off pedastals and remember they are human to and don't want their flaws and downfalls to define them either.
I think watching sports is a way for us to escape reality, but the reason we enjoy it so much is because these REAL people are doing some of the most UNREAL things. Things that we wish we had the talent to complete ourselves. When we find out that an athlete has been using steroids, it is just as entertaining because finally there's an answer to why we can not do what they can, and it makes them all the more REAL.
We don't wish their frauds, We love to love the greats, but at the same time we want them to be like us. We do not want them doped up on drugs, we don't want them to lie to us and deceive us. Americans love greatness, we cheer for it, we admire it, we aspire to it. Americans have just been lied to so much by baseball players that it is no hard to trust them. We don't want them to be frauds but now after so many cases of steroids from the best players it almost makes you assume the worst.
Super interesting question! We admire athlete's greatness, and oft times they do things that are too good to be true. I think we almost look for ways to prove that it really is too good to be true.
I have always wanted to see a game where the old legends of baseball play the newer legends of today. However, with the substance abuse that goes on to enhance performance would cause an unfair match. I think greed has become a priority in some athletes lives so the take performance enhancers to increase their worth.
I hope that most of them aren't because many children look up to them. heck...many adults look up to them.
I think we long for the escape from reality that sporting events offer us, but at the same time, we like knowing what we're watching is real. We experience an interesting dynamic within ourselves. We also tend to build parasocial relationships with television personalities for much the same reason. We want to be involved to a certain extent.
We are all human - leading us to occasionally do stupid things...celebrities have a microscope on them because they have a much umm MUCH larger influence than you or I. Tons of people smoke dope - no body "cares" but when someone we look up to does it....it has a much larger impact.
i think that we love athletes for the same reasons we want to see them fail. They are so much better at what they do than we are. It can be discouraging to see some one do something so easily that would be so hard for us, i think that that is why we stand in awe as they do it and get excited when we realize they are just as human as the rest of us.
i think this goes along with the idea of "anti-icons" that we talked about in class a few weeks ago. today, americans are more cynical and don't believe in any "true heroes," so now the people who fill those roles are scrutinized and gain just as much attention for their imperfections
I think we once viewed these people as people we could always look up to and would never let us down. Now we find fault in them so when something does happen we are not disappointed.
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