If you watched the All-Star Game on Tuesday night, then you are aware that FOX, which knows a thing or two about overwhelming with a talking point, was heavily pushing the “face of baseball.” It appeared in ads, pre-game, and was littered throughout the commentary. To wit:
Pete Rose and Frank Thomas debated who the “Face” was.
You know who I never found referenced as the “Face of Baseball,” though? Either Pete Rose or Frank Thomas. Where did this phrase come from? It’s not just the FOX broadcast, either. MLB has run a “Face of MLB” contest, won by Buster Posey last year, and David Wright the year before.
We can’t even agree on a Face of Baseball, which might tell you that it is just one of those dumb Internet talking points that has virtually no real meaning. Similar to when I dove back into the archives to look at the history of the term “elite quarterback” and the “next Lawrence Taylor,” I dug into the dark reaches of the internet to find out how the “Face of Baseball” came to be.
My initial gut reaction is that Derek Jeter is to blame for this, that somehow he was anointed the “Face of Baseball” upon his retirement tour, and suddenly we had a void that we never even knew existed before that time. This may be true, the term appears so often in the last few years that it’s hard to distinguish (for the search geeks among you, the search for “Face of Baseball” turns up a lot of false positives because the word “of” is so common that a Lexis search just treats it as a search for Face and Baseball appearing near each other).
Prior to at least 2008, though, I can tell you that the term wasn’t the exclusive domain of Jeter. It appears that the term “Face of Baseball” to describe a particular contemporary player first came into prominence in the late 1990s, and was used at least as much as a steroid-related pejorative as a term of praise for the best player. Since 2000, the following players were described as the “Face of Baseball” in articles mentioning their rumored or confirmed steroid use: Rafael Palmeiro, Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi, and Sammy Sosa.
Ken Griffey, Jr., meanwhile, was referred to as the Face of Baseball in a 1998 article by J.A. Adande. A year later, Jeter and Alex Rodriguez were both referenced as the Face of Baseball in a 1999 article by George Vecsey. In 2000, Jeter, Rodriguez, and Boston’s Nomar Garciaparra, all shortstops, were described as such in a New York Post piece by Joel Sherman.
It is possible the three best all-around shortstops ever are playing right now and the oldest, Garciaparra, will not turn 27 until July, a month after Jeter turns 26 and the same month Rodriguez turns 25. They are the face of baseball, smiling in stylish garb from the front of the nation’s top male fashion magazine or welcoming the sport to a new season with six games in the Great Northwest — three of Garciaparra’s Red Sox vs. Rodriguez’s Mariners followed by three of Jeter’s Yankees vs. Seattle.
That would be the last time that Jeter would be referenced as such in an article for five years. Meanwhile, around the same time, Mark McGwire also got the “Face of Baseball” treatment in the Miami Herald before the 2000 season.
McGwire is McGwire. Right now, he is the unmistakable face of baseball, the face on the Wheaties boxes fans held over railings for him to sign on Tuesday. Nobody cares that his team finished 75-86 last year, fourth in its division.
In 2002, Tony Kornheiser wrote, just prior to the World Series, “[a] few years ago Ripken’s face was the face of baseball — the way Bonds’s is now.”
Ryan Howard was also referenced multiple times as the next Face of Baseball. Then there was this from the Orlando Sentinel prior to the 2005 season.
“A couple of years from now, young players such as 2004 NL Rookie of the Year Jason Bay of the Pittsburgh Pirates and Minnesota Twins prodigy Joe Mauer could be the new face of baseball. In the not-so-distant future, Atlanta Braves phenom Adam LaRoche might be mentioned with the same high regard as Houston’s Jeff Bagwell.”
Then, in 2005, we can blame none other than Gary Sheffield for reviving Jeter as the Face of Baseball. After Jeter was not selected for the All-Star Game that year, Sheffield said, “It ’s a black eye….Derek Jeter is the face of baseball.”
Before Griffey, Jeter and the Steroid Faces of baseball were getting black eyes, though, the term was used almost exclusively in a different manner. The modifier “the changing” was often used in describing the Face of Baseball, and it was not applied to current players, but rather historical events, players, or broader movements. The Face of Baseball was not an individual; rather it was the overall complexion of the sport.
In 1997, President Clinton invoked the term in looking back on the 50th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s Major League debut. “It’s hard to believe that 50 years ago a 28-year-old rookie changed the face of baseball, and the face of America, forever,” President Bill Clinton said during a ceremony at Shea Stadium.
That wasn’t the first time that the term had been used in regard to Robinson, only the most prominent. Jackie Robinsonand the integration of baseball is by far the most common usage, as sportswriters throughout the 80s and 90s referenced the Robinson and changing the face of baseball.
The second most common usage was in sportswriters invoking the impact Babe Ruth had on the game. Again, though, this was not a contemporary comparison, and was referencing a larger impact. In 1918, Ruth tied for the AL-lead with 11 home runs. In 1919, he led all of baseball with 29, 17 more than any other player. In 1920, he was traded to the Yankees and hit 54, changing the landscape of the sport and beginning the era of the Bronx Bombers.
Then, there was the man who overtook Ruth’s career records, invoking the term in a 1994 piece by William Rhoden, “The Hammer is a Year Older,” appearing in the New York Times.
But Aaron said that it wasn’t just the breaking of Ruth’s record that touched off the venomous outpouring. Rather, the hatred was a delayed reaction to the onslaught against black athletes who began to dominate baseball during the mid-1960’s, precisely at the time when the game needed an infusion of fresh blood.
“We changed the face of baseball,” said Aaron, referring to players such as Billy Williams, Willie Mays, Ernie Banks, Bob Gibson, Willie McCovey and Lou Brock.
“They don’t want people to know that,” he said, referring to owners, writers and others charged with interpreting baseball history. “They want people to think that Babe Ruth was the man who changed the game. He hit the home runs. He had the big belly. He trotted around the bases, and he was the one.”
In addition to those prominent references, I found the following that were referenced in an article from the past, between 1978 and present, as changing the Face of Baseball: Al Campanis’ comments, Astrodome, Bill Veeck’s innovations, Curt Flood, Dave Nilsson (as the “Australian Face of Baseball”), Drug Testing, Influx of Latin players, Marvin Miller, Oakland A’s mustache gang in the 1970’s, Relocation, Ria Cortesio (first female umpire in minor leagues in 2007), Tobacco Ban, and Walter O’Malley.
The oldest reference I could find, with an old newspaper archive search, was in 1977. This TV listing identifies a show with Joe Garagiola entitled “The Changing Face of Baseball”, which is described as an examination of agents, million-dollar contracts, and the intense competition of club owners. Later that same year, an article entitled “Steinbrenner Says High Salaries New ‘Face of Baseball‘” quoted the Yankee owner on the topic.
What is the “Face of Baseball”? It’s been a constantly changing term used in a variety of ways. Who is the “Face of Baseball”? No one individual, and pardon me for sounding like a grumpy old man, but this talking point is juvenile and full of sound, signifying nothing.
John Weiss released a pictorial book entitled “The Face of Baseball” back in 1990, chronicling players and images from the 1984 to 1988 seasons. There was no single face of baseball, just as we can agree on today (as the constant use and disagreement shows). The Face of Baseball is Mike Trout, and Bryce Harper. It is the myriad of other young stars who have entered the league. It is Salvador Perez and Andrew McCutchen. It is Dallas Keuchel’s beard and Jacob deGrom’s hair. It is a mix of all the players, executives, and managers who make up the sport.
[all photos via USA Today Sports Images and Getty]
