Revolutionize might be a strong word; dominate might be a little more apropos.
With the signing of his new, six year, $51 million mega-deal yesterday, Justin Upton has officially arrived.
He now has his franchise’s backing on his path to greatness and super-stardom.
As we begin this decade, he seems to be one of the best young players in all of baseball. Upton, only 22 years old, is now the face of the Arizona Diamondback franchise and, within time, might be the face of MLB as well.
It couldn’t have come at a more perfect and fitting time either.
Baseball needs a player like Justin Upton right now. If it’s not to revolutionize the sport, then to at least help it with a few things.
Baseball needs players like Upton to help the sport finally get over the steroid era and put it to rest.
It needs players with unquestioned natural ability and talent to root for again. As fans, we’ve been burned by Manny, A-Rod, and a long list of talented superstars too many times. Now it’s hard to fathom that anyone’s clean anymore.
That’s why it needs a great young natural talent like Justin Upton, a player whose been hailed as having the top skills at every level he’s played since high school.
A young man who has every gift and tool a baseball player could ask or dream for.
A star who you can watch and appreciate the beauty of his play without questions or wonders.
He, along with the other great young players of the sport, can bring back integrity to the game.
He can also bring back something else that’s important.
He can bring back the black youth of America.
Now, I am usually the last person that likes to make sports about race (even though there times that do warrant it). This can be something finally good about race in sports, though.
Justin Upton can help energize “baseball” in black communities again.
The number of African-American baseball players in the league has been cut in half over the last ten years. That stat might not make you a little disheartened, but I’ll confess it bums me out a bit and I’m not even African-American.
That’s because I see something like that and then I think back to the rich African-American tradition in baseball.
I think back to Hank Aaron and Willie Mays.
I think back to all the great Negro League teams of their day.
I think back to the persecution and struggle that Jackie Robinson had to face to break the color barrier.
I start recalling in my mind all the great black players that have enriched baseball over the years since then. To see so few black players now a part of the game is sad.
There are many reasons people will come up with for the decline. The shift towards basketball and football is a very obvious one. For every Under Armor football commercial with 10 black athletes or Nike commercial full of famous black basketball players, there are zero baseball commercials of that nature. They try with Ryan Howard, but it just isn’t on the same level.
The black youth of America doesn’t see that with baseball.
They see many things when they are being influenced to first play sports.
They see Chad Ochocinco dancing and having fun on Sportscenter almost daily.
Year after year, they turn on the NBA draft to see young black basketball players routinely walking up to the stage and the multimillion dollar contracts that awaits.
Then they see baseball.
They see a player like Barry Bonds, who dominates for years and breaks many records, only to be vilified, persecuted, and ending up being hated by fans and media alike.
So which sports should I play? Hmmm. Eeny Meeny miny……
It’s going to take players like Justin Upton to reverse this.
Upton along with great, young African-American players like David Price (Tampa Bay), Andrew McCutchen (Pittsburgh), and Adam Jones (Baltimore), plus a few others, can show young black athletes that there is a future in baseball for them.
These are all good, humble, and supremely talented individuals. They conduct themselves in the right way and can be looked up to as role models at a time when many black athletes are failing at that for whatever reason.
It’s going to take the help from the media though.
Recently, the media has not been overly kind to African-American athletes, whether it is properly called for or not.
Kids like Justin Upton are the exception though, and they deserve positive publicity.
Justin doesn’t need the model girlfriend on his arm to feel important (Reggie Bush).
He doesn’t need to shill himself out to every major company for advertisement purposes (Lebron James).
He doesn’t seem like the kid who sends pictures of his penis on his phone for all to see (Greg Oden).
He seems like a person that not only the black community can rally around, but all of America and baseball fans as well.
I admit it—I’m biased when writing this article.
Justin Upton has been my favorite baseball player since he was in high school. I like a good high school phenom when I see one. I can appreciate future talent.
I remember watching a young LeBron playing at the Sovereign Bank Arena in Trenton. I spent my free time in high school going to Bergen Catholic-Don Bosco Prep football games because I enjoyed watching Brian Cushing play at a high level. I follow the high school recruiting in the top three sports probably more then I should.
What can I say, I’m 21 years old. These are the players of my generation. We're about to watch there careers unfold in front of our eyes, and that’s somewhat exciting to me. I get to watch how they did as young prodigies, all the way up to how they flourish throughout their pro careers.
It’s great to see this with Justin Upton.
He can be our generation’s Ken Griffey. He can help us remember great players like Willie Mays, who played the sport with grace and integrity. He can help us rekindle the days when being an honest hard working player meant something special.
So, yes, maybe Justin Upton won’t start the revolution of baseball; maybe instead he starts the evolution of baseball.
He can begin helping the game evolve.
He also brings the game back in a few ways. He can help us remember what’s good, right, and fair in baseball again. He can help bring back a whole demographic of players that we lost in the previous generation. Justin can help the game expand to new heights and leave its dark past of recent times firmly in the rear view mirror.
He has the charisma and the makeup to be baseball’s next great star. I started rooting for the Diamondbacks because of Justin Upton (the snazzy new colors helped too).
It takes something special for me to root for a player and Justin Upton has that special quality.
He didn’t get the quality from a syringe or a media agenda.
He got it from working hard and playing honest.
Hard working, honest, and talented stars is what baseball needs again, and they just might have it in Justin Upton.
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