Yearning for a Past that Never Was: Baseball, Steroids, and the Anxiety of the American Dream

Abstract Baseball has been a reservoir for nostalgic narratives of equality, fair play, and the American dream. However, the recent steroids scandals unearth contradictions within these narratives, highlighting anxieties concerning baseball's past and the steroid era related to our notions of fair play and a Puritan work ethic. We argue that the sports coverage of Mark McGwire's role as both savior and pariah of baseball evidences tensions surrounding the rhetorics of progress and American exceptionalism. This article suggests that the discourses surrounding the steroids era are best understood though the lens of nostalgia, which seeks resolution between the contradictory elements of American identity. Keywords: BaseballNostalgiaSteroidsAmerican ExceptionalismBurke Acknowledgements An earlier version of this essay was presented at the 2007 Southern States Communication Association Conference in Louisville, Kentucky. The authors are thankful to Eric King Watts, Bob Krizek, Greg Dickinson, Alessandra Beasley, and anonymous reviewers for offering valuable feedback on previous versions of this essay. Notes 1. For example, slugger Matt Williams was on-pace to eclipse Roger Maris's single-season home-run record; Tony Gwynn was on the threshold of joining Ted Williams as the only other player in over 50 years to break the .400 season batting average; and the Montreal Expos, with the second-lowest payroll in the league, owned the best record and were favorites to win the World Series. 2. "Performance-enhancing drugs" subsumes a variety of natural and synthetic pharmaceuticals that have various legal and medicinal statuses within baseball. For example, there are available measures to test for steroid usage, but there exists few reliable tests for human growth hormone (HGH). Likewise, some steroids, such as the anti-inflammatory cortisone, are permitted with doctor prescriptions. The common thread among these substances, now banned by MLB, is that the vast majority of them aid the development of muscle power and speed up the return from injury (Interlandi, Citation2008). Like MLB, we treat all banned performance-enhancing drugs (primarily steroids and HGH) as one category. 3. Stein (1998), in another entry in Time's "Hero of the Year" section, locates McGwire's resolve in "a strength that comes not from the Catholic Church McGwire attended but through the modern religion of self-help." Stein continues, "For an intensely physical guy who grew up in a household with four brothers and no sisters and who never did very well as a student, McGwire, 35, has embraced a Jeffersonian rationality. And at the same time, he's got this softness that also plays against type. If Aristotle and Oprah had spawned, and there was, like, a lot red dye around, the result would have been Mark McGwire." McGwire's heroic qualities are suggestive of a pensive, humble figure who succeeds despite traditional hardships that derail weaker men. He is cast as an individual who embraces the masculinity of a prior time; he spoke softly and wielded a big stick. Yet, the manliness, strength, and resolve were oddities for a man of sensitivity. McGwire is the consummate "good guy" who properly prioritizes his life, recognizing that baseball is just a game and one's true priorities reside in family and the protection of abused children. All told, McGwire provided symbolic cohesion to a particular brand of American exceptionalism, a transcendent, self-sustaining faith in individuality that embraces both populism and ingenuity. 4. In fact, Roger Maris faced similar issues over the legitimacy of his home-run record of 61 set in 1961. In 1927, when Babe Ruth set the single-season home-run record of 60, MLB had two fewer teams and played eight fewer games. Unfortunately for Maris, he did not break Ruth's record in the same number of games, only to hit number 61 in the last game of the season. As a consequence, Maris's record was greeted with scorn from Yankee fans who questioned its legitimacy. Additional informationNotes on contributorsRon Von Burg Ron Von Burg is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Christopher Newport University Paul E. Johnson Paul Johnson is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Communication at the University of Iowa

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