The meme showed up on my Facebook feed a few days ago. It was simple enough but carried a message that usually ends during the first weekend of April every year. Here is what it looked like:
This was placed on Facebook by my cousin Dawn. Dawn lives in St. Louis (which you think would be bad enough) and she carries on the tradition of the rivalry between the Cardinals of St. Louis and the Cubs of Chicago. It is all in good fun and we each have a laugh at each others expense every baseball season. At the same time we do play nice when at the end of the season one of the two clubs are in the play-offs. This means I play nice a lot more often than Dawn does because chances are the Cardinals are in the play-offs three years for every one year that the Cubs make the post season ... and that is being conservative.
However, Dawn did show a lot of class in 2016 when the Cubs finally won the World Series for the first time in over a hundred years. I received a pair of socks that proclaimed the Cubs as World Series Champions. I always pull for the Cardinals during post season as the represent the state of Missouri in a very fine and classy manner.
This year has been different though. Thanks to a virus that has the American economy shut down, there is not any baseball. If Tom Hanks theory of "There's no crying in baseball" holds true, then there is a lot of crying around the thirty ballparks that serve as home to the thirty clubs because there is no baseball.
Dawn's meme was correct, if not slanted, as we begin to see the first of May approaching without a single ballgame being played. Even spring training was cut short. All major league sports are suspended for an undetermined amount of time. I am just thankful that the Chiefs were able to get that Super Bowl victory and the Blues won the Stanley cup before things went completely bonkers in the sports world.
How many of us have ever had the thought cross our mind of there being no sports. Chances are that if we did think that thought it would be for a positive outcome. Well, folks here we stand, absolutely no competitive sports being played around the world. There is not any soccer. There are no auto races anywhere from local Saturday night dirt races on up to NASCAR, Indy and Formula 1 racing. There is not a golf tourney every weekend. We did not have "March Madness" for college basketball and the college softball and baseball teams did not even make it though half a season and so there was not a College World Series.
The televised sports networks do not know what to show. They spent a week showing the old "Home Run Derby" show from the late 50's to early 60's. After 3 or 4 hours of that it is snooze time. I have taken to watching Full baseball games from previous years from both the regular seasons as well as some of the old World Series classic games. I watched a game the other day from a couple of decades ago where the Phillies beat the Cubs 23-22. Chances are we would not have seen a game like that this season. I have watched Bob Gibson pitch the first game of the 1968 World Series, a pitching masterpiece, again. It has been awhile since I have even saw highlights of that game.
Now the question is starting to bug me about when the Major League baseball season finally gets underway? What will it look like when it does. It could be close to the All-Star break before they even start the season. Will there be a Kentucky Derby this year? An Indianapolis 500?
Let's face it though. The biggest thing missing this summer is baseball. From the 7 year olds playing t-ball all the way to the major leagues. It is not around and we miss it. You might not want to admit that you do, but I have a feeling that somewhere deep down you feel its absence.
We drive through the neighborhood past ball field complexes that are usually filled with kids of all ages in filthy uniforms drinking a post game coke yet now the parking lots at the fields are empty. The glow over the houses from the lights at the ball fields every night is now dark. The wiffleball games in the middle of the street joining all the neighborhood kids into a fun time of socialization are not to be found.
I Googled baseball 2020 and there is now a passionate discussion on whether to go back to 1960 when the season was only 154 or try to squeeze in the full 162 game season
I read an article proposing that Major League Baseball commence in empty stadiums. Not the usual regular season stadiums though, like Fenway, Wrigley or Yankee, but rather in the teams spring training stadiums. Empty spring training stadiums. This way the teams would not have to fly all over the country but a short drive around Arizona or Florida to play the game. The problem with this idea, of course, is that between Florida and Arizona. the leagues intertwine terribly. We would have a one season realignment of baseball with the champions from Florida playing the champions from Arizona is a World Series played in, oh I don't know, Midland, Texas maybe?
I could probably handle all of that but there is one thing that could change the face of baseball for a very long time. If this "Florida/Arizona" model is accepted this year, what happens to the designated hitter rule? You might smirk at this but it is a huge question. For REAL baseball fans, the designated hitter was what George Steinbrenner sold his soul to the devil for. He couldn't make the deal for both leagues but he got it in place in the American League. A Faustian type conspiracy that would bring the Yankees a few more World Series titles, plenty of more post season appearances and the added bonus of not having to watch your pitcher look like a third grader at the plate every three innings swing lazily at pitches the he had no chance of making contact with.
This "Florida/Arizona" model for the 2020 season would be the final movement in the conspiracy to get rid of any semblance of puritanical baseball. This is the biggest danger that the 2020 season faces, it is the largest risk that could possibly be taken. The conspirators goal is to make their final move on placing the designated hitter rule into place for all of baseball. My heart aches at the thought of that happening. The next step would be replacing managers with robots as all strategy would more or less be taken from the game. No longer would we see a full roster of a team being utilized in one game. No more double substitutions to keep the pitcher at the bottom of the line up. Pinch hitters and runners would become even more scarce than they are now.
I wonder, if it is possible, that some high roller money men in the Bronx, New York financed this virus and paid off news outlets to spread alarm. Will President Trump step in to save the day by pushing for an amendment to the Constitution outlawing forever the designated hitter rule from the National League or is he also part of the conspiracy to bring the designated hitter into full force through out baseball.
Could this truly be the reason for this virus being unleashed on the world in 2020? If so, I fear for the future of our country for when the designated hitter rule becomes the new norm for baseball, baseball as we know it will no longer exist.
Okay, so I got a little silly with this post. I should be able to do that from time to time, don't you think? When My cousin Dawn posted that meme about the Cards being undefeated while the Cubs have yet to win a single game I wrote to her that it was typical liberal spin on facts to which she replied "We have to joke this year. We have nothing to watch. I’m rewatching the Stanley Cup now.".
My cousin Dawn is correct. Right now at this point in time, we do need to keep a good disposition and make the best of what we are dealt. Grab fun and laughter wherever you can. It could be the only things that keeps us all sane.
Good luck dear readers as we work our way through this summer of 2020.
God bless all of you.
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