'Putting Some Mustard on a Political Curveball!'

'Baseball is America' explores America's Pastime through a trilogy of books: "A Child of Baseball" bats leadoff. Baseball, the bellybutton of society is a metaphor for America, acting both as its direction and reflection.

Baseball is America, America is baseball. American history, embracing its religious past as a Christian nation, and baseball history, including its synthetic enhancement precedent, is traced through a tapestry of time in a life story format.

I recently had the opportunity to speak with author Victor Baltov, Jr about his new book, 'Baseball is America: A Child of Baseball,' and first wondered how the book idea had first come to him - and how exactly did it tie in to merit's once founded on Christian principles within this country? "It was an unexplainable call to action in the same vein Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) plowed up his cornfield in the 1989 baseball film classic Field of Dreams. For Ray it was: "If you build it, he will come." For the author it was: "If you write it, they will read it." While Ray saw dead ballplayers, as a baseball lifer (one that had played the game every year between 1959 and 2005 except 1978, a year the author studied baseball attendance in grad school and wrote a thesis on it, the author saw the game he loved transforming to just another entertainment venue before his very eyes."

"It was a gravitational pull to do something precipitated by the home run chase (fraud) of '98 and the hypocritical treatment of Shoeless Joe and Charlie Hustle who were punished extremely harsh because their game fixing was not altruistic in nature. Experiencing the trickle down effect (Big Leaguers sending a subliminal message to the youth) that high performance without integrity is okay was icing on the cake. The author sees America through the lens of baseball and baseball through the lens of America."

"Retirement from playing and coaching baseball in 2005 coupled with the indifference and apathy of American people towards normalized cheating lit a fire under him. Due to truth telling being socially illegal resulting from America's new moral code, political correctness a.k.a. synthetic righteousness, the only way for his voice to be heard and thoughts expressed was through writings which afforded the opportunity to display how the American culture and baseball are intertwined and why America and laterally baseball operates in a moral state where high performance without integrity has become the rule instead of the exception. Like Viktor Frankl before him, writing served as a vehicle to find identity and meaning in an America deviating from its founding."

"The author was extremely alarmed by being forced to watch, metaphorically speaking, players dealing picture cards and aces off the bottom of the deck on every single pitched ball. Amphetamines and stealing signs (child’s play) were bad enough but their effect amounting to, metaphorically speaking, and dealing numbered cards off the bottom of the deck in most cases. With corrupt politicians in Washington (DC), corrupt business people on Wall Street (NY) and scandalous entertainers in Hollywood (LA), America's Favorite National Pastime (baseball), a traditional symbol of Americanism, has an "obligation" of being the standard-bearer of “going green” on the American culture. Restoring "trust" to a game where virtually nobody was obeying American law or the rules of baseball is the goal."

"Christian principles in America have been the undisputed fuel for unparalleled success and prosperity in America. Without Christian principles, free market capitalism does not work. Christian principles foster trust in business and society because people are expected "voluntarily" do the right thing. With secular principles being the guiding force, everybody is expected to push the envelope and cheat to some degree without being caught."

"That's the game within the game in baseball and corporate America in general. With everybody being expected to cheat a little bit (secular instead of Christian principles), government regulation is needed. As the cheating escalates, the regulation increases and soon thereafter, free market capitalism transforms into quasi-capitalism similar to Communist China."

Please explain more to us about the dawn of the 'Synthetic Era' - what you mean by that term, and why things changed so badly because of it? "The term Synthetic Era serves to merge the fake or artificial makeup of the ballplayer en masse since 1994, and to a lesser extent since 1985, caused by biotechnology with a muscular secularization of principles and values in the American culture causing the definition of right and wrong to be artificial (or synthetic) concepts. The ballplayers en masse (some more, some less) display extreme hubris while breaking the law and the rules of the game while engorging in steroids (synthetic manhood), human growth hormone (synthetic youth), amphetamines (synthetic energy and alertness) and Adderall (synthetic concentration)."

"Breaking the law and the rules of the game simultaneously to gain an unfair advantage of the competition on every single pitched ball has been redefined from cheating (wrong) to the "competitive edge" or "strategy" (right) in an America where right and wrong artificial or synthetic concepts. Ballplayers being awarded millions of dollars while denying opportunity to those ballplayers playing by the rules and obeying the law is redefined from stealing (wrong) to a "high achiever" or a "real competitor" (right)."

"It fits into the greater American culture that has successfully changed obeying all Ten Commandments to disobeying all Ten Commandments as "right" and transforming all Seven Deadly Sins of the Catholic church from vice to virtue. Right and wrong are truly artificial (synthetic) concepts in Synthetic Era America."

Your new book, 'Baseball is America: A Child of Baseball' is full of thought-provoking topics, not to mention some forthright, and very personal stands on what is happening in our country today re: under the guise of 'political correctness' - so, did you ever consider possible backlashes from people within the sport due to such courageous statements/thoughts? "My nickname as a pitcher on the mid-70's Oklahoma State baseball team was "Balls". I have my father's DNA in me that gravitates towards fairness and righteousness on moral issues. He demonstrated his strong character during WW II as a defector of the Soviet Red Army who was taken prisoner by the Nazi's where he spent time in Buchenwald from which he escaped, joining the Polish Combatants who fought both the Soviets and Nazis simultaneously in Poland. He was a leader of the Russian Liberation Army in 1944 that would have successfully overthrown Stalin with relative ease had Roosevelt and Churchill not betrayed them in 1945 at Yalta."

"After the war, he spent two years as a journalist in London publishing a weekly newspaper called the Bulletin which effectively captured the theme "My Private War Against Stalin." While my father was treated very poorly by the Nazis as a prisoner in Buchenwald, I have been treated equally harsh and sadistically in Synthetic Era America both professionally and in high school level athletics on behalf of my son for taking moral and ethical stands."

"I fully expect Major League Baseball to do everything possible to ruin my life and protect their synthetic brand which is standard practice of the self ingesting organism more commonly known as corporatism. M. L. King Jr. fought to eliminate the injustice of Jim Crow. My fight against a sort of ideological Jim Crow where ballplayers with ethics and a conscience are either denied admission or given a seat on the back of the bus (the minor leagues) could result in a similar fate."

"Ballplayers have been gaming the system (breaking the law and rules of baseball) for many years in order to enhance performance and put seats in the seats and fatten their bank accounts. While it is politically correct to condemn the supplier (the drug dealers of the most secret underworld culture of them all), it is politically incorrect to question or condemn the performance of any baseball hero that posts bogus numbers or is really a minor leaguer playing in the Bigs as a result of synthetic enhancement."

"The United States of Entertainment does not demand equal justice under law for the users of illegal controlled substances, only the suppliers, due to the political correctness that protects entertainers from prosecution. If MLB employed ballplayers that happened to entertain as a by-product instead of entertainers (engaging in altruistic cheating) that happen to be ballplayers, they would be subjected to the same justice system as the rest of us."

"To dare question the autheticity of the home-run chase of '98 as it was occurring in '98 (as I did) branded the acuser as an enemy of the state due to protection afforded by political correctness. As a result, the synthetic fraud problem in baseball exploded into an uncontrollable catastophic event far greater that the relatively "innocent" Black Sox scandal of 1919. Due to political correctness, society, and especially the youth are taught that gambling in baseball is a mortal sin while altuistic cheating and committing felonies to gain advantage over the competition are venial sins."

What is it that you would like the readers to take away with them once they have read this new book? "4. Throughout American history, beginning in the mid-1840's, baseball has been and is a microcosm for the larger American culture; BASEBALL IS AMERICA. The author contends that not only is baseball America's reflection, it also serves as its direction, hence AMERICA IS BASEBALL. There is currently a strong correlation between lack of integrity and high performance in both baseball and the greater American culture (completely opposite of the Accenture commercial featuring Tiger Woods representative of the high correlation between integrity and high performance)."

"This is self evident during the Synthetic Era (1985 through 1994 - Phase One; 1995 through present - Phase Two) where the play on every single pitched ball is possibly tainted by ballplayers performing significantly beyond natural talent and skill levels. High levels of success require gaming the system in both baseball and the larger American culture; therefore, the foundation of the American dream based upon meritocracy (taking one's place in society based upon talents, skills and ethical and legal hard work is seriously compromised)."

"The history of baseball, history of America (including its religious past) and how they are intertwined is explored in a life story format of the author. His two favorite teams, the Yankees and Reds are used to mark time fulfilling Terence Mann's (James Earl Jones) proclamation in Field of Dreams: "But baseball has marked the time" in America. The supernatural component in day-to-day American life and baseball has been “Billy Goated” (denied admittance into the public square and field of play), being replaced completely with the material or metaphysical."

"Therein lays a root of America's culture war with apathy of the American people allowing a hostile takeover of American exceptionalism fueled by technology and a muscular secularization of values. Leadership is critical to both baseball and America. Progressiveness merged with technology has created a monster threatening the American way of life. Use of synthetic manhood (steroids) and the Fountain of Youth (human growth hormone) for the purpose of gaining athletic prowess on the baseball diamond is a form of hubris and a liberal value on the culture war front. Playing ball within the confines of a traditional value system with respect to illegal synthetic enhancers is an impossible situation on a decisively Machiavellian playing field."

"The liberal value system in baseball that redefines cheating to be simply "strategy" or the "competitive edge" metaphorically plays within a strike zone that is nose-to-the-toes and wide when compared to the traditional strike zone of behavior that has metaphorically shrunk to the size of a gnat's behind (derriere). Right and wrong have been designated to be synthetic (artificial) concepts and the challenge is to metaphorically reclaim the strike zone. The source of baseball's Synthetic Era (1985 through 1994 - Phase One and 1995 through 2005 - Phase Two) success is rooted in the master race ideology of Adolf Hitler and the gigantomania philosophy of Joseph Stalin."

"The state of baseball and laterally America, reflect the regression from America's founding based upon Christian principles (referred to in the book as the Spirit of '76). Erosion of the American value system based upon founding principles in which most people have done the right thing causes capitalism, a key component to individual liberty, to seriously malfunction, threatening its existence."

Finally, being that you yourself were an amateur baseball player back in the Glory Days, what was your very own biggest achievement within the sport? "Being able to play the three highly skilled positions of pitcher, shortstop and center-field "naturally" at a level capable of "holding my own" (hit anybody, make any play or retire any hitter) against Big Leaguers on good days until the age of 50 is a tremendous physical accomplishment. Playing college ball at a Division I college powerhouse (Oklahoma State) was also good, as was posting 194 mound victories against 57 losses and 7 ties."

" My bigger achievement within the sport; however, was preserving (by my actions) the "character " of the Big League ballplayer from the Glory Days, the heyday of American culture represented honorably by America's greatest generation (my parents' generation, those that fought in WW II). My second book in the BASEBALL IS AMERICA series, Origins and History, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly devotes two chapters to the description of role model ballplayers that I emulated as both a player on a daily basis."

"My biggest accomplishment and most satisfying accomplishment within baseball; however, was as a role model youth coach during the 90's on Rocket funded fields in Houston. It was very ironic that the anti-thesis of the Synthetic Era ballplayer (me) coached America's youth on fields funded by the poster-boy of the prototype Synthetic Era ballplayer, the Rocket."

"Thank you for your interest." - Vic

Interviewed by: Russell A. Trunk

www.baseballisamerica.com

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