Baseball Is Life

I spent a good Friday night in the nose bleed section at Chase Ballpark last night. The game was a blowout as the Diamondbacks got killed by the Pirates 10-3. I felt sorry for the D-Backs who seemed to be outgunned from every position. From the front office to the bull pen, this poor team is going nowhere. This means that by the end of September if they are pulling in a thousand people a game, they should consider themselves lucky.

I stopped on my way in to the park and bought a program from one of those non team associated vendors on the outside for two dollars rather than paying the five dollars inside the park and getting the team propaganda. The magazine had some good articles in it which were not all pro-Diamondbacks, but the most telling item in it was a listing of yearly salaries for the Diamondbacks players. Since we got to "The Chase" early enough to get a good seat (there were only about 22,000 people there), I did some quick math in my head. (Yes, kids, it is possible to do math without a calculator.) What I discovered was that the entire starting line-up for Arizona, all nine men, did not make as much in a year as Steve Nash is going to make playing for the Phoenix Suns this year. And we wonder why Arizona cannot win? They are playing a big league schedule with a Triple A roster!

I love good baseball. Notice the adjective good...But right now AZ is not playing good baseball. They do not even have a manager with ANY managerial experience. They hired AJ hoping that his communication talents could get them inspiration. But, I feel for him. He is trying to make chicken salad without the proper ingredience, and is learning on the job, too.

In one of my favorite movies, "Field of Dreams" one of the characters says that baseball reflects life. Between the lines all things are equal, the great American game where people who work hard sometimes get the breaks and win, while others lose. There is no grey area. That is why people like sports. Sometimes it is fair and sometimes life is foul.

And like AJ Hinch, we take what we have and we try to make the best of it.

Go Dbacks! (No, I have not lost my love of the Cubs, but I need someone to root for in person!)

Doughnut