The Strat-Wise Dalai Lama

March 20, 2001

The Tao of Mac and Sosa

There was more at stake than the home run record in 1998

Tao (pronounced "Dow") can be roughly translated into English as path, or the way. It is basically indefinable. It has to be experienced. It "refers to a power which envelopes, surrounds and flows through all things, living and non-living. The Tao regulates natural processes and nourishes balance in the Universe. It embodies the harmony of opposites (i.e. there would be no love without hate, no light without dark, no male without female.)" Quite possibly, there might not be Major League Baseball as we now know it, without McGwire and Sosa.

Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and their home run record chase of 1998 uplifted not just the sport, but an entire nation as well. The Tao, or Path to change and improvement culminated with a Chase that ignited a fire under Americans about the sport of Baseball, that most people thought could never be relit after the Strike of 1994. There were those who thought Basketball had replaced Baseball as America’s Pastime. A banner 1998 season and the sport of Basketball with a work stoppage of their own later, and who’s back on top in the eyes of Americans? But the pursuit of Maris’s record did more than just strenghten the sport of Baseball. It also helped take everyone’s thoughts away from recent airline crashes, a sagging global economy, and the names McGwire, Sosa and Maris were heard more than the names Lewinsky, Starr or Clinton for the first time in a long time.

A healthy America needs the sport of baseball to be healthy and, like the Tao, in balance. Baseball, with it’s diverse ethnic mix upholds the legacy of America’s Melting Pot. In no other sport can you find a racial mix as varied and dynamic, including players from just about every ethnicity and background. Team rosters include players who are Hispanic, Asian, Black and White; there are players from Puerto Rico, Mexico, Canada, Australia, Japan and Korea; there are players who are Catholic, Protestant, Jewish and Muslim. Virtually any combination of the above you can think of and then some are represented.

It is also a social anchor that binds parents to children and provides common ground for all. Baseball is the sport of our Fathers and we have all learned about it and played it at one time or another in our lives. When a Father and a Son have little else to talk about or agree upon, Baseball is always there to provide a helping hand and a topic of conversation.The entire world was watching when Big Mac cranked number 62. Mark McGwire has been the model of class in a day when few athletes are seriously thought of as role models. Who did he greet first as he crossed the plate? His son. Like millions of fathers and sons before, a shared moment was made possible because of Baseball.

Baseball has always brought people together, who may not have much of anything else in common. Ask Cubs or Red Sox fans what their team means to them. Shirts on sale in Wrigley proclaim proudly "Any team can have a bad century". What loyalty. What optimism. Where else do you find such attitudes? Nowhere but baseball. The sites of games are sacred ground, where the memories of the past greats live on. They are truly the Fields of Dreams. Every spring, hope is renewed and everyone is a contender. Only in America can the hopes and dreams, joys and sorrows, of millions of people ride on the broad shoulders of grown men who get paid ungodly sums to play a kid's game.

Perhaps Baseball would have lived on and prospered. Perhaps all would have been well with the nation and the world, irregardless of that Summer of ‘98. But I truly believe without Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, and Roger Maris who held the record, things would not have been the same. They provided a positive shift in attitudes, in the Tao, towards not just how we looked at the sport, but also how we looked at each other. Now, just 3 years from some of the most memorable Baseball moments of my lifetime, the powers that be in the sport are teetering on the brink yet again. Hopefully they can learn from the past, because this time, there may not be enough power in the Tao to provide balance yet again. There may not be broad enough shoulders to carry the sport back to the forefront of American ideals. George F. Will once said in reference to the fact that most of us played the game as youngsters, that “We are a nation of failed baseball players.” Let’s hope the Player’s Association and the Owners can steer down the path of putting things into the right perspective and balance, and not make that statement a truly literal prophecy.

Peace, Fair Luck, Strength and Honor