The Rant
By Trav Flatt
Well, here we are on the tail end of the All-Star Break. Following are my astute investigative insights regarding that Summer Classic, the Major League Baseball All-Star Game:
I did not watch it.
Don’t get me wrong, though. It wasn’t my lack of interest that kept me from watching the game; it was more of a technical issue tied into a recent move. I very much was looking forward to seeing what sorts of amusingly stupid commercials were to be flung at me between innings. I doubt All-Star Game commercials have caught up with the annual Super Bowl offerings, but any major event is subject to some very interesting late-night deadline version exhibitions of marketing.
In reference to the move, I have been forced to bid adieu to my beloved Albuquerque Isotopes and say hello to: The San Angelo Colts! It looks like the Colts are pulling up the rear in their division, though, and most recent checks of the local sports news indicate that they’ve just had their asses handed to them by Pensacola.
No matter! I’m in Texas, now, so I can more avidly (And in a rare display of being included in the ‘local’ demographic for a Major League Team) say "Go, Rangers!" Luckily, they’re in the AL. I can still maintain my soft spot for the Marlins through the Albuquerque connection.
In any event, the move has snorked up the vast majority of my free time. I’ve been dreadfully busy scouting for work and even busier lounging on the porch sipping on beer while the deer and armadillos and whatnot frolic about in the backyard. My free time has been busily spent tossing knuckleballs at my visiting step-nephew and watching him try to glove them. He very swiftly adopted the ‘Stab At it and Pray’ method, which is still in use by a few catchers I know (Such as myself).
One thing I noticed… He uses this relatively softer version of a baseball, and by merit of having used it, he seems to be inordinately disturbed by the notion of an actual hardball coming toward him. Now, I’ll grant that he’s only seven, but I still think it’d be a better bet to get them STARTED using the real deal. For one thing, it’s probably a better idea to have kids throwing hardballs at one another before they’re throwing hard enough to do some real damage. As it stands, they get used to the softer ball, and get pretty good at winging it in there. Suddenly, they’re shunted over to a harder baseball and aren’t remotely used to it.
When I first started playing, at about the same age, we didn’t have ‘T-Ball’ or ‘Pitching Machine for Minors’ or ‘Softer Rag Ball’. I hate to sound like one of those ‘Back in My Day’ blowhards, but there IS a visible difference, and I think it’s not a positive one. The weenification of a sport just does not sit well with me. Set ‘em up, turn ‘em loose, and let them grow into the actual sport as it’s meant to be played is my philosophy.
Of course, there are Valid and Thoughtful (In the sense of "stupid") considerations floating around out there vis-à-vis softening up the sport for kids to minimize injuries.
Anyone, kid or non-kid, is going to experience the possibility of injury when playing a physical sport. Hell, when I was a kid we’d go out and do MORE dangerous stuff if the parent-sanctioned activities didn’t have enough potential for severe bodily harm. "Okay, we’re done playing Super-Safe League Bowling, now let’s get the heck out of here and go try to jump our dirt bikes over the ditch! Woo!"
Anyway, I guess my central point is that I’m against ‘tweaking’ the sport for safety concerns. Anyone who’s serious about continuing to progress in a sport is going to eventually meet the Real Deal, and do you think it’s "safer" to have him come into it completely inexperienced? Right Answer: No.
For what it’s worth, in my first year with the Bosque Farms Blimps, I got REALLY drilled in the ribs by this lefty kid. I thought I was going to flat out DIE. And see?! Look how I turned out.
Well, let’s leave that part out of the entire debate, neh?
