Pa.'s long, sad decline as an athletic power
The world was much wider in 1960. And because 90-second casts and parochial newspapers offered few glimpses beyond our hometown and home state, we were bound more tightly to both locales.
The world was much wider in 1960. And because 90-second casts and parochial newspapers offered few glimpses beyond our hometown and home state, we were bound more tightly to both locales.
Back then I was certain Philadelphia was the world's sports capital. I proudly pointed out the fact that three fellow Pennsylvanians - Wilt Chamberlain, Johnny Unitas, and Arnold Palmer - ruled their respective games. And, in baseball, Stan Musial wasn't far behind.
Pennsylvania's sports stars were as tough, gritty, and abundant as the state's other great resources - steel and coal - the production of which was likely to have employed these athletes' fathers.
Maybe that's why the revelation of the baseball Hall of Fame's newest class felt like a last hurrah.
Both new members were born in the state - Ken Griffey Jr. in Donora, Mike Piazza in Norristown. But when they got the news of their elections, they were living far away, in sunnier places.
Their hometowns had given birth to earlier Hall of Famers, Stan Musial and Tom Lasorda. But by 2016, both places were as played out as the state's abandoned coal mines and shuttered steel mills.
Griffey and Piazza won't be the last Keystone State natives to reach Cooperstown. Montoursville's Mike Mussina finished 10th in the voting and, like Wampum's Dick Allen, should one day end up with a plaque. There will be others.
Still, the state that in 1900 produced one of every five major-leaguers, that was the birthplace of such legends as Christy Mathewson, Roy Campanella, Honus Wagner, Josh Gibson, Reggie Jackson, Hack Wilson, and Bruce Sutter, has little in the Hall of Fame pipeline.
Only 25 of the 1,100 Americans who played in the big leagues in 2015 hailed from here. That's fewer than places such as Indiana, Washington, and Tennessee. Texas had nearly five times as many major-leaguers, California almost 10 times.
All but the most devoted baseball fan would have difficulty recognizing the names of many of the current Pennsylvanians. Not one was an all-star and the best, probably either Devin Meseraco or Neil Walker, will never get to Cooperstown.
It's much the same in football.
Pennsylvania, which for most of the 20th century produced more blue-chip college recruits than anywhere else, has been surpassed by states such as California, Texas, Georgia, even South Carolina. After holding the top spot forever, we've even yielded to California as the No. 1 source of Pro Football Hall of Famers.
This muscle drain is apparent at the college level, too. No team from Pennsylvania has won an NCAA basketball title since 1985, a college football championship since 1986.
In football, where both schools managed to buck the tide for many years, Penn State and Pitt have stumbled dramatically.
Since 2010, Penn State football has had four seven-win seasons, a mediocre overall record of 45-31, and no national title contenders. Pitt, during that same span, has gone 41-37 and endured three losing years. The Nittany Lions' last national championship came 30 years ago, Pitt's in 1976. (Two other Rust Belt states with Big Ten schools, Ohio and Michigan, have continued to excel in big-time sports, while Penn State's recent success has come in volleyball and wrestling.)
Pro teams are less likely to rely on homegrown talent. Nonetheless, beginning in 1981, Pennsylvania's seven major-sports teams have combined to win just one NBA title, one World Series, two Super Bowls, and three Stanley Cups.
The reasons for this reversal are easy enough to identify, weather and wealth primary among them.
Sun Belt speed has replaced Rust Belt bulk and brawn as an athlete's most essential attribute. Youngsters looking to hone their skills in the outdoor sports have far longer seasons in warmer climates.
Meanwhile, the nation's population and balance of power, which for so long tilted toward the Northeast and upper Midwest, have shifted southward.
Business Insider recently ranked Pennsylvania's once dominant economy 36th among the 50 states.
In 1950, ours was the third-most populous state, Philadelphia the third largest city and Pittsburgh No. 12. By the 2010 census, the state had fallen to No. 6, Philadelphia to No. 5, and poor Pittsburgh all the way down to 62.
Faced with all these depressing trends, the state's usually disappointed sports fans can't help but ponder some what-ifs.
Perhaps if the state's economy were more robust and its weather more hospitable, Jordan Spieth's Pennsylvania-bred parents would have stayed.
Perhaps if the steel, banking, and insurance industries hadn't relocated, Penn State, Pitt, and Temple would have the kind of billionaire boosters that schools such as Texas, Baylor, and Oklahoma State milk so often and to such great effect.
Perhaps if the passing game hadn't supplanted running in football playbooks everywhere, hard-nosed, in-the-trenches Pennsylvania kids would be in greater demand.
You have to be a wild-eyed optimist to sense a comeback amid all these clouds.
I suppose Comcast could reinvigorate Pennsylvania's economy by growing even more powerful and shedding offshoot industries in its wake. I guess it's possible that if global warming intensifies, our climate could one day resemble Alabama's. And maybe Philly and Pittsburgh will move to the top of every free agent's wish list.
Until then, younger Pennsylvanians will have to find their heroes and their sources of pride elsewhere.
My grandson lives in a Washington suburb. Thanks to technology, the wide world of sports, for him, is something other than the title of a TV show. He's got a universe of options to assess and appreciate. Hometown teams mean nothing to him. His favorite athlete plays 4,000 miles away, the Argentinian soccer wizard Lionel Messi, who plays in Barcelona.
By the time he's my age, all sports will be so internationally diversified that hometowns and home states will be meaningless, lost in the cacophony of a shrinking world.
That's not a bad thing.
I'm just sorry that he'll miss those goosebump moments when I picked up a Sports Illustrated or turned on a nationally televised game and was thrilled to find another Pennsylvanian.
@philafitz