People that play sports are not "heros". It cheapens the word when someone like Michael Jordan or Lance Armstrong are called "heros" for their athletic abilities.
The folks fighting in our military are heros, cops and fireman that lay their lives on the line are heros. A bunch of guys playing baseball are just a bunch of guys playing baseball.
Oh, and why don't these baseball players have a "choice" with what they do with their bodies? What right does the government have to tell them what to do with their bodies? A woman has the right to choose. Why not these guys.
Before they close this little meeting could one of them ask Sosa to say "bazeball hab beeeen berry berry good to me"? That would be funny. That would make me laugh. Then at least I'd get something from my tax dollars funding this silly show today.
I think the attraction of sports for humans is that it is a way to replicate combat and perhaps other thrills that we used to have in a state of nature (hunting, e.g.) but which are absent from our sedate modern lives. Sports reveal character. Repeat that: Sports reveal character. In so revealing, they create heroes and villains. When a dead tired runner crawls across a finish line, that's heroic. When Kirk Gibson limps to the plate and hits a home run, that's heroic. When Kellen Winslow collapses in overtime and gets up and helps his team win, that's heroic.
When you're at the free throw line with the game on the line, or pitching and behind in the count, or serving for the Wimbledon championship, you are involved in something that reveals something about yourself, and displaying it to the world.
That's not the same as being heroic when your life is on the line, as with a soldier or a fireman, but it is still within the genre of "heroic". Let me guess: you're not athletic at all, and resent jocks?