Enjoy the Major League Baseball playoffs. Me? I’ll be crying in my beer. Except that I don’t even drink beer … it messes with my sinuses.
I had very high hopes that the Detroit Tigers would make it to the playoffs, perchance to the World Series. In first place in the Central Division throughout June, July, August and September, the Tigers tied for first at season’s end with the Minnesota Twins. So after 162 games, it took one more to anoint the division champion. That 163rd game went back and forth for twelve innings. But we lost.
Boo and hoo. Not everyone can be a winner. Except, maybe, in another sense.
The corporate-government complex that has taken over baseball and most of professional sports has milked billions from taxpayers. Everyone pays for stadiums even as players and owners rake in extraordinary rewards.
We could all win if this subsidy system were stopped. The fans, especially, could rejoice, savoring in good conscience the game’s important lessons: The ethic of always working your very hardest, doing your best, never giving up.
It’s entertainment and solid lessons about life that I can share, even now, with my kids. This summer we had the opportunity to travel to Detroit to see one game. And then, sitting on our couch, we watched on TV until the final pitch, hooping and hollering enough to make my wife shake her head.
After the game, we complained about missed calls and blind umpires, reminding ourselves that there’s always next year.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
4 replies on “Wait Until Next Year”
As a fellow Detroit Tigers fan, you share my sympathies. Next year, perhaps .… As a fellow lover of liberty and limited government, thanks for all the great work you do!
I’ve always enjoyed your columns, but NOW I truly love you… m
Paul,
Baseball, as the professor of his philosophy class said in a parenthetical moment, is a game of luck (spring 1950). To illustrate the soundness of this observation by the prof, I cite the second game of the Dodgers-Cardinals. See the AP summary on the game for excellent writing. The sinking line drive is the key event. Not really. The Cardinals had a number of other chances to win. 27 outs, they say.
Condolences to Tiger fans.…and not just for this year.
Teams with privately owned stadiums seem to do ok.….and are even a financial boost to their community. (Boston does alright) And the community doesn’t have to wait 26 years to see the positive $$side.…just in time to start funding a new stadium.