Time On My Hands

I just found hours and hours of time to do something more constructive during the next 8 months.  I just re-instituted by boycott on baseball.  Several years ago I did it over the strike, but my beloved Cardinals with Mark McGuire lured me back during the home run record season.  But it is back! 

What caused this?  My wife and I read the morning papers with such comments… “Did you see THIS!”, “How could he be so wrong”, “You won’t believe so and so’s column”.  During a recent morning my comment was “I am boycotting baseball!”.  My wife comment was, “How much?”  My response was “$189 million!”  You do notice that we have been married for some time, we can communicate in abbreviated sentences and perfectly understand each other.

 The object of my scorn was the proposed contract between Derek Jeter and the New York Yankees to pay Mr. Jeter $189 million to play shortstop over 10 years.  The contract is not yet signed but looks good to happen.  Of course, Mr. Jeter mouths all the right words… “It is not about the money”.  Meaning…. It is ALL about the money.

 Don’t get me wrong, I don’t deny Mr. Jeter the right to negotiate the best deal he can… I am all for the capitalist system.  Baseball has decided that the Yankees and the other big market teams are the “chosen” ones.  They have the gold, they have the TV audience, and they have the right to be in the World Series more often than not.  This route is a perfect metaphor for today’s society…immediate gratification, the long term be damned.  Yes, they will get the almighty TV dollar for a while, but eventually the fan will know… this is a sham! 

A sham it is and I will not participate.  It is obvious for the short term they do not need my eyeballs looking at the ads on TV’d baseball and won’t get ‘em!  When baseball understands this and I get more and more converts they may change.  The NFL has been a little quicker learner.  They have devised a system where small markets like Green Bay have a chance to compete with the big TV markets.  But the NFL faces another challenge, the Thuggery element! 

Without even thinking about it, I said yes to an invitation to come to a meeting during the Super Bowl.  Me, do something else during Super Bowl?  Me, who thought Monday Night Football was duty and a duty that I loved?  Yep.  Why?  There was a bigger reason than the warm, just made apple pie and good friends!

 During the player introductions (I did see the introductions and the end of the game) I understood why.  Ray Lewis who was right next to the murder of two people came out and did his thing…  Not a celebration of a good play, not a confident player, but an act. An act of thuggery.  This is my territory, come into it at your peril.  Yes, the players think up new victory celebrations, new TV attractors, new acts of thuggery.  I think before you can dance in the end zone or over a player leveled with a vicious hit, you must come up with a proper response for getting beat on a touchdown pass… like prostrate yourself on the field in front of your teammates and all of TV land, only then can you do a victory dance!  They pray after a touchdown, why not pray for forgiveness when you fail? 

Thuggery is the only reason to watch the new XFL.  It is minor league football with thuggery.  It is playing to an audience, the young male, who needs better.  He needs a better role model than Vince McMahon and out of control football players.

 Yes, I may have a lot of time come next fall as well as all summer.  Time to make some judgments, time to put my time to better use and not go down the sewer with the judgments of what sells on TV.