Baseball Then and Now, by Michael D'Antonio:

(View entire post here)

Some of the most inspiring roles in the story of the Dodgers of old were played by fans. In Brooklyn, and later Los Angeles, they came to cheer even when their boys lost because, I think, they could see a bit of themselves on the field. When the bumbling bums of the 1930s missed fly balls, or set their pants on fire with cigars (this really happened) they still gave their all and the faithful appreciated it. In the 1950s and 1960s when they became dominant on the field, they were still men you could relate to. They were great athletes, yes, but in the pre-steroid era when few players were made genuinely wealthy by their contracts, they seemed more like us.

Today, after a decade or more that saw players bulk-up like cartoon superheroes, it's hard to imagine them being anything like us. Add the enormous wealth so many enjoy thanks to free agency, and the distance between the fellow on the field and us in the stands grows even greater. Of course no one can begrudge a player who seeks the highest pay for the comparatively short period of time he'll enjoy in the game, and many of their problems are not unique. The downside of celebrity can be seen in every field where people come under media scrutiny, from Wall Street, to Washington, to Hollywood.

Perhaps the worst part of the new dynamic in baseball is that it deprives the fans who used to revel in loyally supporting a team the opportunity to do it wholeheartedly. Sure, in the old days players were hardly saints. Many drank to excess and indulged in every vice available to the famous and the celebrated. But they didn't take anything that could artificially improve their performance. If they hit a homerun or struck-out the side, they did it on their own and deserved the cheers. Now we can't be sure a player deserves our love and admiration and the loss is as much ours as his.

Michael D'Antonio, Forever Blue, Riverhead, Penguin Books