excellence. For example, I myself am a baseball player. When I look up to professional .
players such as Ken Griffey Jr., I praise the fact that he has the ability to run from home .
to first in four seconds, or hit a baseball 500 feet, or make acrobatic plays in the outfield. .
I see that we are both human and have two arms and two legs, so I can acknowledge the .
fact that he has some much more potential than myself. Because of that, I praise him. .
On a greater scale, sports figures have an enormous impact on many aspects of an .
individual's life. Children look up to these sports figures as "idols" who are invincible. .
And because so many people get emotionally invested while watching sports and become .
so involved in the game, sports consequently holds a great importance to them in their .
lives. As Richard Harris Jackson states, "the enjoyment we experience emotionally from .
witnessing the success or victory of a competing individual or team increases with the .
degree of positive sentiments . . . we feel toward that party" (Jackson 135). Thus we look .
up to great superstars as celebrities. Various commercials and promotional ads place .
these sports figures on a pedestal that is right in the public's eye for all to see. With the .
media's portrayal and the athlete's advertising appeal, sports play an exalted role in our lives. .
All one has to do is examine the chronology of the 20th century in America's history to .
note the interrelationship between athletic heroes and the influence they have had on the .
masses. Babe Ruth is one of the greatest known sports heroes and legends of this century. .
His strength was prodigious to the point where even today the phrase "Ruthion" is .
synonymous with great power. However, it is the time that the "Great Bambino" came .
Black Sox Scandal that he reclaimed the trust that the public had lost for the game that .
they loved. And it was ten years later, during the Great Depression that the nation was .