Rant #2,455: Today's the Day

The day has finally come.

After months of talk, back talk, verbal volleys and a lot of nonsense, the 2020 Major League Baseball season begins today, with a few games scheduled and a full slate of games slated to be played this weekend and for the next 66 days.

Sixty games in 66 days ... if you were starved for baseball, then you will now be satiated through your gills with the national pastime.

It is going to be a different kind of baseball that we have ever seen--various rule changes to not only supposedly speed up the game but to also help the participants avoid coronavirus contamination--but I guess it will be baseball.

I guess.

To me, some of the rule changes are stuff of beer leagues--putting a runner on second base in a tie game, with the object to get the run home and shorten the game--but it is something we are going to have to live with during the pandemic, where to be honest with you, the playing of professional sports has received quite preferential treatment from our legislators, over other venues ... and as usual, it has to do with money.

But that being said, even the 60-game schedule is a bit ludicrous--it reminds me of the 64-game schedule I used to play when I played the dice-driven Strat-O-Matic baseball in days of yore--but it is the best MLB can do, so I guess we have to live with it.

I guess.

And with absolutely no fans in the stands of the stadiums that these games are played in, it makes for a surreal experience. Some teams are using cardboard cutouts of fans to fill some seats (yes, you have to pay for this), and others are using piped in music and fake fan chatter to make it appear as if someone is there to cheer on the home team.

But the silence is deafening.

And if it isn't enough that we have to live with an airborne enemy of who knows who's making, but we concurrently have to deal with the existence of an enemy we have created ourselves, the need to protest where no need exists.

You just know that some players will take a knee when the National Anthem is played at these games, surrendering themselves to the pandemic of hate and utter disregard for authority that supposedly peaceful groups like Black Lives Matter have made mainstream.

I wonder if these players, managers and coaches who take a knee really and truly understand that Black Lives Matter does not mean "black lives matter," although the narrative we are being force fed by politicians and the media says they are one and the same.

And I also wonder if participants in this nonsense truly understand why the Anthem is being played in the first place. First played at sporting events 100 years ago to commemorate the efforts of our soldiers in World War I, the anthem today commemorates our fighting forces around the world, wherever these men and women my be serving.

In the midst of an environment where going with the mainstream is what many people choose to do, even if it is so absurd, some players have actually come out and stated that they cannot and will not take a knee, because they have relatives and close friends in the fighting forces. They state that it is their teammates right to take a knee, but they simply cannot do it.

I think they get it better than most people, and we will see how this all plays out today.

And we will see how this unusual season also plays out.

I don't even think that it has to do as much with the talent level of teams on who will lose and who will win. It has more to do this season, than any other season, on who will be the most healthy ... and that means not only what team will avoid the usual injuries that take players out, but those teams who can ward off the coronavirus infestation the best.

Several key players have opted out of the season for coronavirus-related reasons--some are actually sick with the virus, others just don't want to take a chance of getting the virus for one reason or another (many have pregnant wives or are caring for newborn children), and you just know that more players will be joining this opt-out list as the season unfolds.

Whatever the case, this season will be interesting, and you can bet that you will see teams that were thought to be out of it since day one succeeding, teams that were supposed to be in it from day one failing, and other teams living up to their hype or lack of hype.

You will also see new starts emerge, existing stars continue their brilliance, and we might even see a .400 hitter (with a certain asterisk to follow that achievement).

Look, as a true baseball fan, I am starved for baseball. There is nothing on TV to watch, and even without fans in the stands, you can still root for your favorite team in the comfort of your home as you would during any season.

I would rather watch baseball than all the biased news shows and other garbage on TV right now, so baseball will be a real salve for people like me, healing unseen wounds that exist due to the effects of what our civilization is going through.

Sports have always been there to make us feel better, and to take away our constant gaze at what is happening in our world, so for about two and a half hours each game we watch, we can forget about the coronavirus and marches and treachery and fake news and phony politicians and just root, root root for the home team.

How can anyone not be for that?

Play ball!