{"id":24,"date":"2002-08-19T17:32:30","date_gmt":"2002-08-19T17:32:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/?p=24"},"modified":"2002-08-19T17:32:30","modified_gmt":"2002-08-19T17:32:30","slug":"strike-three-youre-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/?p=24","title":{"rendered":"Strike Three, You’re Out"},"content":{"rendered":"

I, like most of
\nSportCenter’s<\/a>
\naudience, have been hearing
\na lot about the upcoming player’s
\nstrike<\/a>
\non August 30th. I’ve
\nbeen a baseball fan who has followed his
\nOrioles<\/a> nearly since birth
\nbut when I attempt to reflect on the upcoming event, I can’t help
\nbut think “who cares?”<\/p>\n

Really, who cares? Why should I care about the players? Why
\nshould I care about the freakishly rich owners? Why should I care
\nabout the sanctity of the “game”? It’s just a game, after all.
\nThere’s a little bat, a ball or two, and some pieces of rubber
\nto run around on. I flip on the T.V. and there they are, playing
\nbackyard ball on center stage, swinging the little stick and hitting
\nthe little ball.<\/p>\n

This little game that wants to be called America’s pasttime
\nhas some major things wrong with it this time of year.
\nSeptember begins the time of fan apathy. The hopes of early
\nsummer are already gone for most of the league and, by relation, most
\nof the fans. I suppose the fans from New York may mourn the loss of
\nWorld Series but should the rest of us? We knew the
\nYankees<\/a>
\nwould likely win it anyway – we knew it last year (beautiful loss, by the
\nway) and we know it will likely happen again and again in the years
\nto come. The playoffs in baseball are just a synonym for getting the
\nrichest teams together to have a party of sorts. The difference
\nbetween the haves and have nots in baseball is the equivalent of a
\nhomeless man peering into the window of a coffee shop. The rest
\nof the league stares at the glorious play of the few from the
\nsidelines.<\/p>\n

But that may be the least of baseball’s problems. Football, a model
\nof modern sports, is back. There couldn’t be a more serious
\ncompetitor for average sports fan. Who will win the Super Bowl
\nthis year? I don’t know. I really don’t. Everyone who thought
\nthe Patriots would win it last year put your hands up.
\n(Those of you in Boston can put them down. We all know you didn’t really
\nbelieve it even after it happened.)
\nTalk about parity and talk about intrigue. Oh, and people get to
\ntackle each other, hard. Can it get any better?<\/p>\n

Baseball, if you go through with the strike, just get it right this time
\naround (here’s a enlightening
\nsuggestion<\/a>
\nto start with). If you want to sacrifice the present for the future, do it.
\nThrow the baby out with the bath water. Wipe the slate clean and
\nbegin anew. For heaven’s sake, look to other
\nsports in the US and implement a salary cap.
\nThis would be the third strike in the last ten years.
\nBy your own accounting your number of chances is up.
\nThis time figure out something both sides can live with
\nbefore baseball fans figure out that they can live without you.
\nBut get it right. Just get it right.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I, like most of SportCenter’s audience, have been hearing a lot about the upcoming player’s strike on August 30th. I’ve been a baseball fan who has followed his Orioles nearly since birth but when I attempt to reflect on the upcoming event, I can’t help but think “who cares?” Really, who cares? Why should I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}