Watching this burgeoning disaster/insurrection of the Republican Party in the battle over the debt ceiling and I think back to the caller who told Mike Francesa that he would’ve ordered Jorge Posada to bat lefty against Rays reliever J.P. Howell because of Howell’s lack of success vs lefties.
The caller—courageous over the phone and without any concept of humanity nor Posada’s pride and prodigious temper—would’ve demanded that the borderline Hall of Fame switch-hitter bat completely opposite to the way he has for his entire career.
The Tea Party and people who feel that a baseline understanding of baseball statistics are connected.
Government—in order to function—requires working with others. This intractable attitude with which many of the newly elected representatives walked into Congress was fine when pounding their fists on the desk and holding firebrand rallies to “reign in spending” and “fix what’s broken in Washington” without minute details of how to complete that impossible task; but when they actually have to govern, that attitude gets you absolutely nowhere; in fact, it grinds the machine to a halt.
You can understand the frustration of longtime Washington insiders like Sen. Mitch McConnell and Speaker of the House John Boehner when they exhibit the look of resignation that there’s no talking to those who think they have a mandate to make change and won’t budge.
It’s as if there’s no talking to these types because there is no talking to them.
Fools who sit on the sidelines and utter such idiocies as “if people get outta the way, things get done” plainly and simply don’t know what they’re talking about. What that statement means is a mystery as if somehow, some way legislation will be passed as if by magic.
How does this relate to baseball?
Because of Moneyball, outsiders with no comprehension of the game itself felt they were somehow qualified to walk into a MLB front office and start ordering veterans—players and executives—around. With Billy Beane‘s obnoxious personality as their template, they were going to “do things differently” like that caller to Francesa suggested.
You know what would happen if that caller told Posada to bat lefty vs Howell? He’d: A) be crawling around on the floor looking for his teeth; B) be ignored; or C) be crawling around on the floor looking for his teeth.
It doesn’t work the way they think in politics or baseball.
You have to compromise within reason without betraying the core beliefs you may have; you have to work with others; and you have to listen to reason.
I see none of that going on in government nor in still protesting areas of baseball where there are those who are so invested in stats and self-important arrogance are wriggling and trying to survive like a gravely wounded bug, lying on its back and flailing with the last ounce of strength to live.
The revolution is over.
It’s time to listen and compromise.
But they won’t because they think they know everything.
And they’ll learn. The hard way.
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