Baseball and the Tragic View of Life
From a listener:
Dear Mr. Robinson,
On your recent comment [on the most recent podcast] on the perfect game that almost was, I believe you may have addressed this but the pitcher was Detroit's Armando Galarraga and the umpire who blew the call was Jim Joyce.
[I reversed the names. My kids will tell you I'm losing it. I blame jet lag.]
I found this moment to be oddly conservative although it was not recognized as such.
Major League Baseball's refusal to reverse the call reminded me Dr. Thomas Sowell's Vision of the Anointed - of a choice an individual with the constrained view would make. "Humanity is flawed, but is fixed" as you said quoting him to himself on Uncommon Knowledge and it is not proper to change the rules or to re-write history as an individual with the unconstrained view might have tried to do. Many journalists (mainly concentrated on the 'progressive' ESPN) advocated for Commissioner Selig's use of his absolute power to correct this injustice - for the unconstrained choice. But, the Commissioner's response basically came down to, "hey, that's baseball."
The Commissioner seems to have adopted Victor Davis Hanson's view (the correct view) of the tragic nature of human existence. Much like a crop of raisins that has been wiped out, a moment of perfection was wiped out in the blink of an eye. The reason that that Galarraga and Joyce could move on, in my opinion, was their tragic and constrained view. "That's baseball" seems to coincide with, "that's life" or "that's human nature."
Anywho, I very much enjoy the podcast and Ricochet site. Keep up the good work!
- Comment (4)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (1)
Comments :
May '10
Re: Baseball and the Tragic View of Life
I suppose that's right that the constrained view would advocate keeping that game as called. However, it would also be consistent with the constrained view to take this as a learning experience, a lesson that umps are flawed and might therefore require a check on their power, justifying perhaps a small incremental tweak in the rules--perhaps with instant replay--next year; then see how it works over time, adjust cautiously, and so on. The infield fly rule, for example, is a rule created to deal with an obvious imperfection in an otherwise great game. We didn't remake the world with that rule, just tweaked things a bit to deal with a specific problem, and it's worked well. Commissioner Sowell would have approved, I think.
May '10
Re: Baseball and the Tragic View of Life
I think thta we are making this much too difficult.
"Galarraga and Joyce could move on" because they are grown-ups.
Jun '10
Re: Baseball and the Tragic View of Life
Dear Mr. Robinson,
Thanks for sharing my email with the ricochet faithful! I saw the post and knew I had to cave in and toss in the $3.47 to start leaving comments and causing trouble.
Please excuse my type-o's. I don't have any jet lag to blame, but figure I can blame them on sleep deprivation caused by the late nights with our 3 week old daughter.... She's the love of our life and hopefully is curbing Mark Steyn's despair just a bit by inching up the US birthrate.
Speaking of Mr. Steyn, he's gone MIA on the last couple pod casts. I assume he's dining with some Duke or other in a far off land or perhaps spending some time in his small town in New Hampshire. In either case, I hope he's wearing flannel.
May '10
Re: Baseball and the Tragic View of Life
Welcome Samwise! One ring to rule them all.