HOW DOES MLB

GROW FANS FROM KIDS

WITH LATE NIGHT GAMES???

     Y’know, we just saw the whole big greedy mess that slammed NY football fans, and we say Tsk, Tsk, what a shame, and the big-money-sports steamroller continues to flatten our already shrinking wallets. 

     Now it’s baseball.  (Or maybe it’s always been baseball, and I haven’t been paying enough attention; but now, with the league championships rolling out their carpets to the World Series entranceway, it’s a whole lot more obvious!) 

     First of all, will somebody please explain to me how Major League Baseball (MLB) proclaims incessantly how commited it is to cultivating young people as fans, and then runs playoff games too late at night for kids to watch (or even listen)? 

     I would really like to hear that explanation. 

     Am I daffy?  Is this request like asking our nation’s leaders how they will solve the economic crisis that they started? 

     Why doers this seem like bang-your-head-against-the-wall material? 

     I know, I know, you’ve heard a million “when I was a boy . . .” stories, but when I was a boy, league championship and world series games were played in the daytime, or at least early evening so kids could engage themselves and their energies in the sport. 

     But, no, the networks decided nights were better.  (Note we’ve come full circle here back to the slimeball mainstream media that is intent on destroying not only the moral fiber of this country, but the very fabric of our national pasttime, not to mention the integrity of the U.S. presidency and the absolute core and essence of those who pursue it in the name of conservative balance and fiscal responsibility.)

     The networks decided nights were better because prime time advertisers would pay them more if they scheduled the events later (and the hell with the kids they pander to . . . it’s sick really!). 

So the delimma we’ve been boxed into is whether we encourage young people to be interested in sports and play them for fun and exercise and identify with heroes (like Cal Ripkin, for example) who represent the heart of what sports is supposed to be about,

OR do we encourage kids to pursue the business of sports with its untold billions of dollars to be had,

OR do we dissuade children from sports (and the grasps of greedy media moguls out there) and suffer the consequences of the kids turning into thumb-punching texting zombies who hear nothing in life beyond i-pod tunes and eat junkfood into oblivion? 

     What’s going on here?  Do these thoughts bother you?  Maybe it’s just me.  Maybe I’m just getting old and irrelevant.  Maybe nobody else gives a damn about how this next generation is growing up (or dwarfing down?)? 

     I think there must be something parents and grandparents and others concerned about the destruction of sports can do to bring about change.  Do you?  What do you suggest?  Put a comment or two below.  Anything you think is okay.  Some action is always better than no action.        halalpiar   

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 Life is more like baseball

 than any other sport. 

     With every inning a decade long, where only a few of us actually get into extra innings, life is more like baseball than any other sport. 

     We walk, strike out, we get some foul tips, and sometimes manage to get big hits in the clutch.  We make errors.  We tag others whenever we can, and avoid those who come barreling home. 

     We get cheered when we perform.  We get booed when we don’t.  There are times when we need to get a glove and get in the game, and other times when we need to step up to the plate.  All of us have to sacrifice from time to time, and a few of us steal when no one is looking. 

     Those who are exceptional travel inside the park and make round-trippers.  And have you ever balked?  When did you last set the table, or be in a clean up position?  We relax on deck, and work when we’re in the hole, and we work even harder to stay away from arbitration, appeals, getting thrown out, and avoiding the bullpen or —heaven forbid— being shut out! 

     We go through different coaches, and we fire managers, but no matter how much money we make, we still always do what the owner and general manager order us to do. 

     Usually in our later decades, we bring in short and long relievers, and of course the eventual closer.  But reality is that we only live life in the National League . . . because we never get to have a designated hitter! 

     If Shakespeare was right that “All the world’s a stage . . .” he had to be talking about our love affair with the diamond.  Diamonds are, after all, forever! 

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