Hard to Find...but Here to Stay
By Tim Benz

It's another lazy Sunday afternoon game at PNC Park. The Pirates are down by six. Again. It's the seventh inning. Beer vendors are shouting last call. The pierogi race has been run. No fireworks today.

Where to turn for entertainment? Not the field! Heck, no!

Well, in section 108, all eyes are on a toe-headed, eight-year-old "Dennis the Menace" look alike. He is regaling the entire section with his imitations of the batting stances employed by various Major League Baseball hitters.

The kid has Albert Pujols down perfect! The wide stance. The slow, level bat measure above the shoulder. Ken Griffey Sr. would have a tough time telling the difference between his son's high hands and waggling torso and this kid's. And the boy's Craig Wilson looks more like Craig Wilson than Craig Wilson.

Is this rugrat spending a little too much time idolizing these players? Is he employing a bit too much hero worship? Some of the grown ups around might have been thinking that. Then they might have walked by the Willie Stargell statue on the way out of the park and remembered how many of their Little League at bats were preceded by imitations of the "Pops Windmill."

It's becoming increasingly chic to bash the notion of kids idolizing their favorite players. Society says we don't know these players away from the field of competition. Our newspapers are full of stories about them getting busted for DUI's, sex offenses, and steroid use. There was even the famous commercial starring Charles Barkley where he stated, "I AM NOT A ROLE MODEL!" In many circles Barkley was applauded for those comments. That advertisement sparked a lot of social debate about the relevance of athletes as substitutes for parents when it came to being role models.

"I don't agree with that," says Stanley Teitelbaum, a clinical psychologist who wrote the book "Sports Heroes, Fallen Idols."

"That was a huge mistake on his part because that culture comes with the territory," says Teitelbaum. "It's valuable and important for kids to find stars as heroes. Their original stars are their parents. But when the child hits 8-10 years old, they realize parents are flawed too and they need to find people in other realms to worship. Sometimes that comes to sports figures. Those athletes keeping that in mind are good role models."

Teitelbaum is one of many in his field interviewed by PSR for this story who have the opinion that youngsters idolizing athletes is not only unavoidable, it's also not a bad thing if monitored well by the parents involved.

"If you have parents who provide a rudder, the idolizing of athletes can actually be a healthy experience," says Dr. Paul Friday of the UPMC Shadyside department of psychology. "If you have parents who are themselves rudderless, then you have a greater propensity to get into fantasy life. It's great to have heroes. It's sad if you don't. But if you have worship then you are potentially displacing a lot. If your parents don't have balance, if they drink too much, if they scream at each other, then you may have a kid who may seek out a super hero through TV or Play Station. They get a fantasy life which allows them to escape and breathe easier."

Dr. Kevin Elko is a performance specialist for some NFL teams and NCAA member schools. He tells athletes that they will be placed on a pedestal, like it or not.

"It's not beyond expectations of these guys to embrace these roles," says Elko, "Is it wise to make them a hero? No. But if they take their status and somehow give it back to the community, then that's something different."

Elko specifically referenced Ben Roethlisberger's public displays of support for slain Pennsylvania state trooper Joseph Porkony last season.

"What Roethlisberger did when the cop was killed… that's hero stuff. It's not about scoring touchdowns."

Actions such as those may resonate more with 48-year-olds than 8-year-olds, however. Roethlisberger wearing a trooper hat for the cameras, donating a game check for tsunami relief, Troy Polamalu anonymously paying for a neighboring family's dinner at a restaurant. Good stuff to be sure.

But that kid at PNC Park was emulating Pujols' home run swing, not his charitable contributions. Dr. Teitelbaum says that's fine, so long as parents "steer their kids towards those athletes that best embrace the role of role model."

Also important, says Dr. Elko, is to point out how certain athletes achieved their on-field star status. "Be careful of how you tell these kids to applaud what their favorite athletes did. Applaud what they did to hone their craft." That angle of the debate has perhaps never been more important than it is now, especially with the thin veil of secrecy now lifted around steroid use in sports.

"Be careful and alert, especially when an athlete says what is and what isn't acceptable… i.e. steroids," says Dr. Elko.

And maybe like that athlete claiming he isn't a role model.

When he actually is one.

Like it or not.

Tim Benz hosts a sports talk show on ESPN Radio 1250.