Take Me out to the Ballgame

Why is it a big surprise that David Stern and the NBA cancelled the first two weeks of the season?  It is the hot topic on talk shows, sport shows, news.  Really?  The players are locked out, they can't do team workouts, and many are jumping to Europe to play, so can someone explain to me why there is such surprise?  In my house, we have just made the assumption that there won't be games before February.  That has been the common thought for months now.  The NBA and the Player's Association are so far apart, how can anyone be surprised by the formal announcement?  Of course, in the end, when they are settled, the fans will be the ones screwed financially.  Always is the case. If no one cheers, would they still play?

In the meantime, I am hanging onto the baseball season.  It will be over far too soon for me.  I love baseball.  I really do.  I know that it has gotten increasingly and stupefyingly slow, but the great thing about baseball for me is all the tradition.  The game itself hasn't really changed in over 100 years.  I love the tradition.  I love to see all the players stand with their caps off and sing the Star Spangled Banner.  I love to see the managers sweating it out and scribbling wildly in the dugout.  Trying to out maneuver the other side.  I love when the Manager walks out to the pitcher's mound and takes the ball away from the pitcher.  I love when the Manager gets in the face of the Ump to argue a call.  I love the 7th inning stretch and singing Take Me Out to the Ballgame (though at Yankee Stadium it's always Kate Smith singing God Bless America since 9/11).  I love when it's a great victory and the players are all over home plate in excitement.  

What I do not like about baseball is the ridiculous amount of time between pitches.  In basketball, they added a 24 second clock so that players couldn't just hold the ball.  Baseball should instill a 10 second clock between each and every pitch.  It's ridiculous how many pitchers take forever. They can call it the Beckett rule for the Boston Red Sox pitcher, Josh Beckett.  As my husband says about Josh Beckett, once he goes into the stretch and looks in at the catcher, a family of four could have dinner and pay the check, before he throws the pitch. In an earlier rant, I discussed how coddled pitchers are.  It is time to toughen them up.  Pitch faster.  Stop trying to "intimidate" the batter or the runner.  Another thing I do not like is the bunt.  Can someone please give me the statistic how often they actually work?  The element of surprise is always ruined by the batter switching hand position too soon.  Please, re-think the bunt or practice it more in spring training. 

Sidebar:  Twitter is one of the first times that I feel the generation gap.  I am on Twitter, get tweets, but have no earthly idea how to use it affectively.  I have no idea how to respond to any tweets that I get.  And why was it good enough to call it the "number sign" for all these many decades and all of a sudden there is a new word, hashtag, which is the same as the number sign?  Who made that word?  What does it mean?  I wonder if you look in the dictionary if it says number sign.  Just something to think about.  

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