Baseball: Make America’s pastime great once again

In the opening week of Major League Baseball’s 2016 season, there’s still hope for the sport once considered America’s pastime. Beset by scandal and facing exciting rival sports, baseball is again seeking to recapture its past glory, with a focus on future players and young fans, with an assist from veterans who played the game the way it should have been played.

Growing up, baseball was the sport for me. Little did we know that in the following years steroids, gambling and a host of other scandals would strike out baseball. Money on all sides seemed to reign, with little regard to the fans. It became harder and harder to even see the game, much less meet a player or catch a ball in the stands. Baseball definitely lost its aura.

Now that I have a son, I wondered what he’d grow up interested in. Would it be baseball, or the glitzier games of football and basketball, with a more exciting product on the field or court?

In baseball-crazy Georgia, it’s not too hard to get excited about the sport. Some of that is due to the small-town community spirit, but some is also driven by the Atlanta Braves. It was once thought it was due to their long postseason run, when they made the playoffs from 1991 to 2005.

Trying to recapture the magic, the Braves swapped prospects for expensive free agents. But despite a few playoff appearances, the team seemed to hit a wall. Now they’ve gone back to their roots, focusing on developing young players with an eye for the future. They’ll also be getting rid of the great Turner Field.

What’s a team to do?

The Atlanta Braves may have solved it by making the game and team more accessible to fans. Earlier this year, the team hosted a FanFest, where kids and adults could come to run around on the field, engage in a number of kid-friendly activities, and even meet the players. I took my eight-year-old son and a friend of his to get autographs, pose for pictures, and even ask questions, like whether travel-ball or traditional recreation leagues would be better for him in the development of skills. It’s not every day you get to shake All-Star Freddie Freeman’s hand, or meet a famous veteran.

While waiting in line for autographed baseballs and posters, I spotted Terry Pendleton, the 1991 National League MVP for Atlanta, who is now a coach. I saw his baseball card and remarked “I wish I had thought to bring my card for you to sign.” He smiled and replied, “You can have mine!” Then he autographed it. I swear I became a wide-eyed eight-year-old again.

Sure, my son will have a hard time pronouncing names like Ozzie Albies and Mike Foltynewicz. It may be a few games or seasons before we see Danny Burawa, Andrew Thurman, Ian Krol, Evan Philips, or Mallex Smith. But I just know when they call one of those players, like Lucas Sims, my son’s going to yell out “Hey…I met him! He showed me how to throw a ball.” And sitting next to him is my daughter, four years older, who loves going to Braves games so much she now plays for the school softball team. The team’s fan-friendly approach won her over.

As Terence Mann, played by James Earl Jones, opines in the film “Field of Dreams,” “The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It's been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game, is a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and it could be again.”

Across America, the Braves and other teams are starting to get back to basics in winning over the fans. And as Atlanta has shown, the sport still has a chance, and a bright future, so long as it learns from the past.

This story was originally published April 8, 2016 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Baseball: Make America’s pastime great once again."