Pretending To Play Baseball

THE GAME OF CRICKET is incomprehensible TO Americans. We know only that the ball is rolled on the ground, struck by a flat bat, that a game often takes days, and that there are frequent breaks for tea and scones. Baseball is cricket's illegitimate child, and incomprehensible to everyone, including those who have watched it closely for decades. Nobody can hit a baseball with a baseball bat without several years of intense practice. People watching the ame for the first time are utterly confuse. they wonder why nobody ever does anything, and why the pitcher doesn't do anything to help the batter, and whether the guys sitting in the bullpen are being punished for something. One of my girlfriends assumed that when a batter is walked, he has been humiliated. Baseball is fun but crazy, crazy fun.In American major league baseball, the craziness extends from top to bottom. Necklaces and earrings, and socks that do not match. The old timers roll their eyes. Today's players make so much money they have wardrobe options. The craziness extends onto the field, into the game itself, and far beyond. Previous generations of players laugh from their rocking chairs at the way the game is played today. The number of strike outs and home runs is out of the ball park. Everyone is big and strong, and must show off to attract attention and more money. Most hitters either strikeout or hit a hoe run. Lively baseballs, strong hard throwing pitchers, hitters swinging for the fences, and maybe a few undetected performance enhancing drugs. The trajectory of every ball put into play is accurately predicted by computer, so why bother putting it in play? When a strong left handed hitter steps to the plate, right field fills up with people, knowing in advance where the ball will be hit, if it is het, and if it doesn't go over the fence.. When a strong right handed hitter comes p, the defense swings around to the left. nobody knows how to bunt, or the defensive shift would be useless. Baseball, like America, has become a game of extremes. Extreme strength, extreme results. More people enjoy playing fantasy baseball on computers than playing the game in the real world, in real time. When our team loses, we can pretend that it won. In the great American fun house, where nothing is as it seems, our sports are fantasies, as is life.