You fear the man who has a dollar less than you, that dollar is rightfully his, he makes you feel like a moral defrauder. You hate the man who has a dollar more than you, that dollar is rightfully yours, he makes you feel morally defrauded.
Ayn Rand, from Atlas Shrugged.
As is often the case, one column spawns yet another one.
After last week’s rant concerning my distaste for the universal designated hitter in baseball, I was asked about my attitudes toward the new extra innings rule that allows the hitter who made the last out in the previous inning to take second base to start the next offensive frame.
My answer included an expletive I won’t use here but suffice it to say I sincerely hate the new rule.
It’s fine for high school softball, but I just don’t want it at the professional level.
Let’s say Dansby Swanson comes to the plate with the bases loaded in a tie game in the bottom of the ninth and strikes out. OK. Then he runs out to second and winds up scoring the winning run much to enjoyment of the crowd that had been booing him ferociously only moments before.
You should not be rewarded for failure.
The rules also contain this clause which is harder to understand than the thought experiment known to students of quantum mechanics as “Schrödinger’s cat.”
According to mlb. com, “if the player in the batting order immediately preceding that half-inning’s leadoff hitter is the pitcher, the runner placed on second base at the start of that half-inning may be the player preceding the pitcher in the batting order.”
Say what?
I thought the pitcher didn’t ever have to bat unless he’s Japanese.
Maybe I’m wrong about that.
There are several legitimate ways to get to second base. You can hit a liner in the gap beyond the reach of the outfielders or bounce one over the fence for a double. You can reach it on a fielder’s choice, perhaps an error. You can even steal it.
But you don’t get second base for nothing.
If MLB really wanted to boost ratings, they would require the designated runner to parachute from a plane and touch second base before he is tagged out by one of the infielders.
Talk about another ratings bonanza!
And I bet Dansby would be highly motivated to get a hit in the bottom of the ninth to avoid jumping from an airplane.
What about a game played in domed stadium you ask.
Hey, MLB employs professional rule writers who can handle any scenario put in front of them.
Perhaps the designated runner will be required to climb down the net behind home plate with a hot dog in his mouth and not drop a single morsel of onion or relish during his descent. Fans would love it.
Look, I’m not some old stick in the mud who resists change at every turn, (despite what my son might tell you). In fact, I even ordered a pizza with onions, peppers and olives on it for the first time ever just the other night. Up until now, I have been strictly a carnivore when ordering a pie, but I rather enjoyed the veggies. I might even give up pepperoni in favor of mushrooms.
So, change is not foreign to me.
I just have a very strict sense of fairness and justice.
I think it comes from all these years in the newspaper business reading arrest reports and covering trials.
I’ve seen plenty of people go off the rails because they failed to learn the concept of personal responsibility.
Trust me, if you just start giving away bases, you might begin to undermine the capitalist system entirely. It’s already pretty shaky with 31 socialists in the House of Representatives and eight in the Senate.
If sports leagues continue to give away stuff, people will begin to believe the progressive notion that social ills are caused by a defective American society rooted in predatory capitalism.
At that point we are doomed. The crusaders in the media already believe that it is there responsibility to fix a country that really isn’t broken.
But as Thomas Sowell said in his book “The Vision of the Anointed,” a belief in personal responsibility destroys the role of media figures “whose vision casts them in the role of rescuers of people treated unfairly by ‘society.’”
So, it’s no surprise the baseball rule that gives a base to someone who doesn’t deserve it was enacted during a Democratic presidential administration.
Ronald Reagan would not have allowed such an attack on the American past time.
In fact, Ronnie once played baseball player Grove Cleveland Alexander in the film “The Winning Team” released in 1952.
Alexander was named after president Grover Cleveland who was a Democrat, but a pro-business Democrat that historians praise for his integrity and adherence to his own morals in the face of withering criticism.
What on earth just happened?
We were talking about baseball and then . . .
Selah.