Sports on TV: The Myth vs.The Man

"How has sports on TV changed public opinion?"

"Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio?" Those words sung by Simon & Garfunkel are more compelling today then when they were written forty years ago. Gods among men; this is how our fathers and grandfathers spoke of the professional athlete of their generation. The "boys of summer" were not boys at all, they were giants on the field. It used to be a baseball player would get a line drive base hit, before he made it to first base the announcer had made the call that you heard on the radio. A simple blooper up the middle was the "shot heard 'round the world". The next morning you read about it in the paper. You talked endlessly about it with your friends. Your hero could do no wrong. All he had to do was live up to image your created in your head. That image was perfect. That player was graceful, lean and mean. He was seven feet tall swinging a tree trunk for a bat. He could run down a fly ball before the batter knew he'd hit it. All the girls loved him and all the guys wanted to be him. Fathers and sons grew closer as they sat around the radio listening to every sound that came out of the ball park. Our sports heroes were immortal.
On a late summer Saturday afternoon in 1939 things changed. Until then, the only way to see these giants at play was to go to the ballpark. But for roughly 500 homes it was different. As the players took to the field they saw the future of professional sports from their own living rooms. In an instant illusions were shattered and our heroes went from myth to mortal man.