I’ve been thinking, Michael, about you and baseball. My thoughts go like this: I don’t understand your devotion to baseball-your devotion to a team of players making a ludicruously big salary who don’t come up with the goods most of the time. You sit, you watch, you anticipate a good game. Why? You’re often bored and disappointed. And how often do they actually win? Do you think that we, the masses, could whip them into shape by neglecting the sport in its entirety?
As far as I can see, the job of the team is to play a good game. And in the process perhaps win the game. Right? That’s what the big bucks are supposedly for. Now, if this were any other line of work (let’s call it that because it’s the way they support themselves and their families), they would have been fired a long time ago for not producing. They should be on their hands and knees grateful for making a splendid living by throwing a ball around.
But, no, the hype, the publicity-the glamour as a result of the hype and publicity-overshadow the fact that baseball is not what it used to be. It must have been lots of fun “in the old days” to attend a baseball game, when the players knew how to play and took pride in the way they mastered the game. And the cost of a hot dog was what it was worth.
Michael, did you read the pleasing story in Time magazine, 18 June 2007 on NASCAR founder Bill France Jr.? It was on the back page and was titled, “King of the Road” by Robert Sullivan. Well, within the story these words were strung together making a sentence: baseball, disgrace, cheaters, government inquiries.
So, I say to you, Michael, let it go. There are other sports you can sink your teeth into. Baseball doesn’t deserve your attention.