Baseball Mirrors Life?

by victim of the sixties on Aug 6, 2008 8:53 PM EDT Comment 6 comments

i just read an article by derrick gould discussing an interview with john mozeliak. moe said he thought people were reacting to the closer situation more with emotion than logic. i have often reflected on the way baseball mirrors life. at the risk of sounding like the lady fan in bull durham, in so many ways baseball reflects life in general. the comments by moe and the reaction on the various web sites to our lack of an effective bullpen reflects the current energy crisis in america.

at the beginning of this season things were cruising along very pleasantly. the cards were performing much better than expectations and the stock market looked better than it had in quite awhile. gas prices were approaching three bucks a gallon but folks didn't seem too worried. not many were changing vacation plans. meanwhile the cards continued cruising and life was good.

then izzy blew a couple of saves and some began to worry. but most felt it was bound to happen sooner or later and it was nothing to worry about. while this was going on, gas blew through three bucks and started inching towards four bucks. some got pretty worried, but most really saw it as an inconvenience. something to complain about but not really a time to over react.

then izzy blew a couple of more saves, tony put him on the disabled list and fans began to really question this pen. gas is about four ten. oil tops one and a quarter. franklin blows a couple of saves. the trade deadline approaches and fans begin to howl for a trade. and now you turn on the news and all you hear is something must be done about the rising price of energy, not to mention the bursting housing bubble. presidential candidates who were adamantly against off shore drilling are suddenly shouting drill here, drill now!

i guess my point is that while you initially react with panic or something approaching that, it is important to act rationally and not give away the future to appease the present. so, i guess i agree with moe. but i also realize that caution can turn to fear if not properly managed. moe didn't trade rasmus and i think we only hurt ourselves by grasping at gas tax holidays and other quick fixes. we should try our best to adapt and see what the future brings.

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wonderful metaphor - Brutus - Ah that a man would know the end of the day as it begins. . .

or something like that. Super post -

BTW What’s a gallon of gas cost in St. Louis? About $7 a gallon in Thailand

An optimist is a man who upon discovering that a rose smells better than a cabbage concludes it will make better soup.

HL Mencken

by akaitori on Aug 6, 2008 10:11 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

About $3.80

by Phizzle on Aug 6, 2008 10:18 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

DC

In the DC area, it’s upwards of 4, and I thought we had it bad.

Life's a river, kid, you gotta go where it takes you.

by KerouacCardinal on Aug 6, 2008 11:52 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Most foreign countries tax gas pretty heavily

and fund mass transit in an effort to reduce city traffic. If you live in a place like Rome or Beijing, there is too much old stuff that can’t be torn down to allow for more highways and throughways. So governments are left with the option of trying to keep people off of the road so that congestion doesn’t become insane. Also, this protects people from gas price shocks, since they can just adjust taxes to keep the price at the pump pretty constant. When I was driving in Ireland in 2003, it was something like €4/L, which was something like $8/gal with the then-exchange rate.

They say that it's never too late, but you don't get any younger...

by Valatan on Aug 10, 2008 3:47 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

by the way,

this is what you were looking for:
O! that a man might know
The end of this day’s business, ere it come;
But it sufficeth that the day will end,
And then the end is known.

Life's a river, kid, you gotta go where it takes you.

by KerouacCardinal on Aug 6, 2008 11:56 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

good post

I’ve always thought about the same thing, that baseball mirrors life… though perhaps I should say American life. especially some of the business aspects… but you could say that it is also mirroring a lot of our philosophies. although right now I can’t think of many concrete terms on this, I usually think about this more abstractly

strikeouts from left-center

by Cards Fan in Chitown on Aug 7, 2008 3:56 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs