Opinion
The Millennials can
save baseball
This new
generation is filled
with hardworking
team-player Joe DiMaggio
types.
By Morley Winograd and
Michael D. Hais
Arcadia, Calif. -
Baseball's reputation
hasn't been under such a
cloud since the "Black
Sox" scandal of 1919.
Just as Sen. George
Mitchell's report
identified 104 steroid
users among today's big
leaguers, nine decades
ago a number of players,
including some of the
game's biggest stars,
were widely reputed to
be substance abusers.
Back then, as now, team
owners put so much
emphasis on short-term
gains that they
threatened to undercut
the game's viability.
Players, absorbing this
"every man for himself"
attitude, even conspired
to fix a World Series.
While we haven't quite
reached that level of
venality today, one of
the greatest hitters of
our era has been accused
of helping opponents at
the cost of his own team
in return for their
assistance in boosting
his personal stats. To
some observers the game
currently has reached
such a crisis point that
baseball historian Bill
James's portrayal of the
players of the 1910s as
"shysters, con men,
drunks, and outright
thieves," could also
apply to many of this
era's all stars.
But just as a new
generation of baseball
heroes emerged in the
1930s and '40s to save
the game's reputation,
baseball is already
witnessing the emergence
of a new generation of
Millennial ballplayers
who will lead the sport
to its next golden era.
Most of the major
leaguers of the 1910s
and early '20s and again
in the '90s and first
decade of the 21st
century came from a
generational archetype
labeled "reactive" by
theorists William
Strauss and Neil Howe.
In the first instance it
was the Lost Generation
(born 1883-1900) and in
the second, Generation X
(born 1965-1981). In
both cases, these
generations were raised
by relatively
self-absorbed parents
who left their children
to fend for themselves,
producing alienated,
individualistic,
risk-taking adults
Lost Generation players
included some of the
greatest names – and
flawed personalities –
in the history of
baseball. Babe Ruth's
appetites were almost as
prodigious as his
ability to swat home
runs. Ty Cobb was one of
the most combative
players of his time, and
also the most disliked.
Rogers Hornsby was the
best right-handed hitter
of his era, but also a
compulsive gambler and
member of the Ku Klux
Klan. And Shoeless Joe
Jackson who, along with
seven of his White Sox
teammates conspired to
throw the 1919 World
Series, earned infamy as
the object of the
plaintive plea that
captured fans'
disappointment with the
behavior of this Lost
Generation star: "Say it
ain't so, Joe."
Today, virtually all of
those who are accused of
steroid usage, including
Mark McGwire, Sammy
Sosa, Jose Canseco,
Barry Bonds, Roger
Clemens, Manny Ramirez,
and Alex Rodriquez were
born within or right on
the cusp of the birth
years of Generation X.
While there are notable
exceptions, like the
nondrinking, noncursing
Lost Generation pitching
great, Walter Johnson,
and the clean-cut Gen-Xer,
Derek Jeter, it is the
ill-performing members
of reactive generations
who have most distinctly
colored the big league
baseball of their eras.
But, in baseball, as in
every aspect of life,
one generation passes
from the scene and
another arrives to take
its place. Reactive
generations are followed
by another archetype –
civic generations – that
are almost their polar
opposite. Civic
generations are raised
in a revered and
protected manner by
their parents, which
produces positive,
self-confident, high
achieving, team-oriented
adults.
Starting in the
mid-1920s, the youngest
members of a rising
civic generation, the GI
Generation (born
1901-1924), came into
baseball. James
describes the ball
players of the 1930s and
'40s as hard-working,
team players who were
completely schooled in
the intricacies of their
craft.
Among the earliest GI
Generation arrivals was
the beloved Yankee first
baseman, Lou Gehrig who
had a quiet personal
style that completely
differed from that of
his flamboyant Lost
Generation teammate,
Babe Ruth. Gehrig was
followed by other iconic
members of his
generation including Bob
Feller, Hank Greenberg,
Jackie Robinson, Stan
Musial, Ted Williams,
and Joe DiMaggio.
Today the members of a
new civic generation,
Millennials (born
1982-2003), are just
starting to populate big
league rosters. Already
talented, positive,
team-oriented
Millennials like Dustin
Pedroia, Evan Longoria,
Zack Greinke, Hanley
Ramirez, Chad
Billingsley, and David
Wright are among
baseball's biggest and
most promising stars.
At this early point, we
haven't seen the full
impact on baseball of
this generation, the
youngest member of which
is only 6 years old. But
an anecdote about one of
them suggests where
baseball is headed:
While at Arizona State
University, Pedroia
voluntarily forfeited
his scholarship to
permit the recruitment
of additional pitchers,
thereby allowing his
team to win the College
World Series. It's hard
to imagine many members
of the individualistic
Lost and X generations
doing the same thing.
Nearly nine decades ago,
the GI Generation came
on the scene to rescue
Major League Baseball.
If history is any guide,
a new civic generation,
the Millennials, is
arriving right on time
to save the grand old
game again. Stay tuned
for baseball's next
golden era.
