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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