Balanced perception of players needed

By Jan Duffy

Wife of Indans'

Shortstop Frank Duffy

One of the most unpleasant aspects of baseball for players and their families is the inexplicable tendency of some fans to pick out one or two players as the focus of unique and virulent personal . abuse. It happens in virtually every city almost every year.

Unlike general criticism or the -booing which inevitably accompanies a loss or a bad play, both of which are accepted facets of baseball life, the scathing criticism of which I speak is incomprehensible and tremendously troubling for the players selected as targets. This particular type of abuse, which manifests itself both at the ballpark and in the letters columns of the newspapers is relentless. It is amazingly personal and rather vicious, concerning everything from the player's performance to his talent and even his personal character.

,

Though fully aware of the possibility that my treatment of the subject will evoke more of the same bitter antagonism from a few fans, I believe that the subject is too important to avoid. While fan criticism is warranted and even helpful when a player's problem is lack of hustle or mental sloppiness, the personal and virulent type of hostility inexplicably exhibited against one or two players each year is clearly counter productive.

Baseball, more than most jobs, is affected by mental attitude-a player is only as good as he thinks he is. Underneath his resplendent uniforin, a major leaguer is a mere mortal. Subjected to such relentless and bitter criticism a player can begin to press, performing worse and increasingly antagonizing the fans.

Baseball Wife

Again and again I have questioned fans and professional observers alike for an explanation of this unsettling phenomenon. Pressed, most fans hem and haw and finally say something like: "Well, it's just that he was supposed to be so good."

Fans somehow feel personally cheated when a highly touted player fails to live up to expectations, as if the player is betraying not himself, but the fans.

While the problem is highly complex, undoubtedly involving hidden psychological and sociological factors, one visible irritant is the proclivity of organized baseball and the sports media to portray baseball players as superior beings. In public relations tradition, baseball players are not only the greatest of athletes but also the greatest of men.

How many times, for the short; term gain of arousing fan interest; and increasing attendance, is a young ballplayer proclaimed by the organization and the media as, the next Willie Mays or the next Mickey Mantle. In reality, such stars as Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays are few and far between.

When overstated potential fails to materialize, the backlash can be terrible indeed. Not only are the fans frustrated and disappointed, but they are often embarrassed at having jumped on the bandwagon themselves. The result is sometimes the relentless and bitter personal animosity toward

the unsuspecting player, which I have described.

The publicity job done on ballplayers by the organization and the media is, in one particular sense, inexcusable. That is the attempt made to project ballplayers as men of irreproachable personal character and disposition.

An example is an item in last Saturday's Plain Dealer concerning Tom Mee, the Minnesota Twins' publicity director. Faced with a request from a gay activist magazine for the names of the team's homosexual ballplayers, Mee responded "in disgust" that· "the cop-out, immoral lifestyle espoused by the tragic misfits who subscribe to your publication is not one that has any place in the wholesome context of major league baseball."

In a time when society in general is expressing greater tolerance of others' lifestyles and sexual preferences, organized baseball, as represented by Mr. Mee, insists upon asserting its "purer than thou" position. Doubtless there are gay ballplayers, just as it is now only grudgingly being admitted that there are ballplayers who drink, smoke, swear and get traific tickets. That there are ballplayers who don't love children, and fans, who aren't thrilled and grateful for their big chance to play in the major leagues, and who don't put their team's welfare ahead of their own, are facts sel-

dom alluded to. Dishonestly, radical politics and marital infidelity are still resolutely covered up in the baseball world. Nonetheless, all these things exist-among baseball players as among any other group of normal human beings. The public rage accompanying the occasional revelations that baseball players are real people with human weaknesses seems the more pronounced because the discovery is so unexpected.

The disquieting personal vindictiveness which fans sometimes display toward individual ballplayers is in part directly traceable to the unrealistic buildup given professional ballplayers.

The blame does not rest entirely with the baseball organization and the media, of course. Fans demand promises of new superstars just as they seem to want to believe that all ballplayers are pure and good and dedicated. Let a ballplayer appear half-hearted and he may as well pack his bags. Too, ballplayers work at the image of All-American boy themselves, though awareness of the penalities for non-conformity rather than willingness to mislead the public may be at the root of their behavior.

Still, the first step toward correcting the problem of fan disillusionment and subsequent bitterness can be taken by organized baseball and the sports media.

Only when the sports publicity network abandons the notion that to sell tickets ballplayers must all have the athletic talent of a Willie Mays and the personal character of a Boy Scout can fans develop a more realistic and balanced perception of baseball players.