Thursday, October 25, 2012

When did baseball players get fat?


Early baseball films showing Babe Ruth skipping around the bases after a home run, his ample upper body propelled on what looked like spindly thin legs bordered on the slapstick comedy that was popular at the time.  Ruth's  excesses at the dinner table, in the smoking cars of trains and at any bar he came across were as legendary in that era as his home runs.  His appearance was about as non-athletic as could be yet he changed the game in favor of the power hitters.

When I came up, at least from what I recall, there were some big guys all right, but they still appeared trim and athletic, no bulging stomachs,  but still with the broad shoulders, and legs that stretched the uniform trousers tight, but it seems that has changed as well.

Wednesday night Pablo Sandaval hit three home runs and from the looks of him it's a good thing because given his size it didn't look like he could have made it around the bases if he had found it necessary to actually run.  Give him credit; in the first two games he did make some nimble defensive moves around third base but in no way is he the model for the perfect athlete.  And, despite his defensive moves, he is no Brooks Robinson.

There are others in the lineups of both teams, including the guy who won the triple crown in the American League, the first such accomplishment in 45 years.  Even he looks overweight despite the loose fitting uniforms these guys wear today.

But the one who sent things over the edge was Prince Fielder.  This guy looks like a 28-year-old-candidate for a heart attack with blond-tipped dreadlocks.   Early in the game a coach urged him on in a run from first to home on a long single to deep left field at the foul line.  He was still running  as he approached home, something of an accomplishment in itself given the looks of him, but the third baseman relaying from the left fielder threw him out during an athletic but insufficient hook slide at the plate.

Later in the game he hit a slow high bouncer to the pitcher, leading to a double play that caught Fielder maybe 10 steps from first base on a play that should have been close, would have been with any kind of a fast runner.  It was then the announcer said he weighed 300 pounds.   Three hundred pounds?????   A baseball player????

Admittedly I don't watch a lot of baseball any more.  It is the game I would most like to play, but for watching I prefer the more consistent action of football or basketball.  In what little I have seen, I have noticed several players in this size and body shape and wonder what happened to the finesse game I came up playing.

Is the tradeoff for power hitting worth losing the speed of a base runner or a fielder who has to cover those huge major league outfields?  Apparently it is.  I mean, the two teams I am talking about are in the World Series while a lot of little athletic guys are sitting home watching, slugging down beer trying to gain weight for next season.

There is always talk about role models.  Is a 300-pound first baseman who can barely make it around the base paths any kind of role model?  For whom?  Put him in one of those big-is-beautiful commercials and forget it.  But as role models go, you have to wonder if these overweight guys aren't an outgrowth of the steroid era where now that they can't bulk up with drugs, they bulk up at the dinner table and because of their power hitting, excesses are excused and preferred to steroid injections.  

Babe Ruth would be right at home -- as long as they kept his alcohol consumption quiet.

And, what a treat it was after this to see one of the skinny guys beat a good throw to second and steal the base, qualifying all of us, every American, for a free taco.  I don't think a fat guy thrown out at the plate or failing to leg out a double play ball can do that for us. Then again, isn't the reward of a taco, particularly one laden with sour cream or guacamole  a bit of irony, considering  it is one of those super fatty feeds we are supposed to avoid? 

END NOTE:  Apparently Fielder has taken  quite a bit of heat over his weight, in fact may have lost out in the big bucks of free agency because of it.  Still he is playing in the World Series and just about all his detractors are not.

Here is a slide show of the 25 best-known fat guys in baseball history.  Interesting to note that three of them are playing in the 2012 World Series.
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