Change Up

Well, here we are again. Time is precious, so let’s skip the intro and get on with this week’s shenanigans.

The Game that Wouldn’t End

As I write this, I’m feeling rather sluggish, mainly because I’m severely hungover. Not the alcoholic kind of hangover, but the kind you get from watching the Toronto Blue Jays and the Los Angeles Dodgers in “The Baseball Game that Wouldn’t End”, the previous evening. In fact, I’m a little surprised I didn’t wake up hallucinating, with Dodger Dog rappers strewn everywhere. But, I am proud to say that I managed to endure every inning of the game, which mercifully and gloriously ended when Fredie (”The Walk-Off King”) Freeman delivered the winning home run for the Dodgers in the bottom of the 18th inning.

For me, watching the World Series is one of the great joys of fall. And, thus far, this year’s edition has exceeded expectations. We’ve already seen the longest game in World Series history, at six hours and 40 minutes, and a complete nine-inning game pitched by the Dodgers’ Yoshinobu Yamamoto, his second of the postseason. Yamamoto’s achievement is particularly notable because, these days, complete games are only slightly less rare than sightings of the Dodo Bird. In today’s game, if a pitcher completes five innings, it’s considered a good day, and six innings is a really good day.

Change and Tradition

Baseball, at its core, is a game of tradition. Its basic objectives have remained the same since the game’s inception; however, over time and with advances in technology, we’ve seen numerous changes, many of which we never foresaw.

In recent years, new rules were introduced to speed up the game, which many have decried as too slow. In addition, video review was introduced as a feature, allowing teams to challenge umpire rulings. And, to top things off, next season, the Automatic Ball and Strike System will be introduced, enabling the existing right to challenge umpire’s rulings to include the right to challenge decisions on ball and strike calls.

What’s most striking to me is that many of the changes that have occurred in the game of baseball are things one could never have anticipated 20 years ago. But they happened. And significant changes will happen again. And, we will live through them. Yes, sometimes the game feels different. And, yes, there are some changes that I’m not exactly in love with, as well as at least one that I outright despise. One thing is for sure, though: things will change again. But that’s baseball, and I still love it.

Let’s Change Up

When you think about it, life is a little like that, too. Rules change, norms change, best practices change, institutions change, and people change. Games go on too long. Players swing and miss and make foolish errors. There is victory and defeat. There are sometimes bad actors. Bad stuff happens. We feel the pain. We rise. And change happens.

We may abhor particular changes in our individual or communal lives. Still, we can take hope in the possibility of change. It has happened before. It can happen again. It will happen again. Change is our hope. Hope is on the ballot. And we, the people, we get a vote. We are not powerless. Let’s change up.

That’s all for now. Until next time, keep the faith.

Ray