baseball – might be baloney

Baseball: How are your eyes?

March 26, 2026 Bill PikeLeave a comment

Today, the Major League Baseball (MLB) season opens.

Seems too early to me.

Growing up, I never tried out for a baseball team in the community or at school.

Yet, baseball consumed me.

I purchased baseball cards.

Waited for the afternoon paper to arrive to check the box scores.

And at night, my AM only transistor radio could pickup the broadcast of the New York Yankee games.

I was a Yankees fan.

I listened to those games.

I could reel off with no hesitation the starting line-up for the Yankees.

Of course, Mickey Mantle was my favorite player.

At home in the backyard was my father’s large garden plot. Behind the garden was a barren field.

The kids in the neighborhood turned it into our “field of dreams.”

We played non-stop— girls and boys.

Bats were cracked, baseballs lost, and sometimes egos were bruised.

But, we always came back the next day to play.

My love of the Yankees faded.

My wife’s relatives converted me to a Red Sox fan.

When our oldest daughter lived and worked in Chicago, my allegiance shifted to the Cubs.

To tell you the truth, now that the Red Sox and the Cubs have each won a World Series, I barely pay attention to baseball.

At my age, I’m a natural born whiner.

So, I whine about the ridiculous salaries.

According to Sportico, “ the 15 highest-paid MLB players will earn an estimated $718 million overall in 2026.”

I was an English major in college, and even I know that’s a lot of money—just shy of $50 million dollars per each of those 15 players.

And with baseball still being our so-called “national pastime” I chuckle that Venezuela defeated the United States in the first ever World Baseball Classic.

Let’s get the disclaimer out here, I’m no expert about baseball. However, I sense that all players must have good eyes.

It is essential for hitting, and so many other taken for granted pieces of the game.

In David Halberstam’s book “The Summer of ’49,” I love the story about Ted Williams being called out on strikes.

Ted Williams was known for his remarkable 20/10 eyesight.

Being called out on strikes really agitated him.

For this game, the agitation continued in the dugout where teammates teased him about being called out on strikes.

In his bellowing about being called out on strikes, Williams asserted that—“home plate was out of line,” and that was the reason he was called out.

The next day, the Red Sox manager, Joe Cronin went out to measure home plate. Ted Williams was correct. Home plate was out of line.

In my aging, I have become more aware and sensitive about my vision. Cataract removals and two corneal transplants have made me more protective of my vision.

For sure these medical improvements have helped my eyesight, but I wonder have they helped me to truly see the world in front of me.

In the movie about baseball titled “Moneyball,” I appreciate the conversation between Peter Brand, the Assistant General Manager for the Oakland Athletics, and General Manager for the team, Billy Beane.

Using player data and computer analytics, Peter Brand is charged with finding value in players “that no one else can see.”

Mr. Brand states that “people are overlooked for a variety of biased reasons and perceived flaws—age, appearance, personality.”

How many times in my life have I failed to find value in people because of my “biased reasons” and their “perceived flaws?”

How about this place called church? How many times has the church failed people for the same reasons?

How many times have I been exactly like the person in the scripture from Luke 6:42: “How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”

If good vision is essential for a baseball player, it is also essential in the real world too.

As a confessed whiner, I’m also skilled at worrying.

I worry about my country.

I love my country, but at this very moment— I don’t understand my country.

Yes, I am worried.

I think about this quote from Helen Keller: “Better to be blind and see with your heart, than to have two good eyes and see nothing.”

In the time I have left in this weary old world, I can no longer afford to see nothing.

I need to become better in finding the value in people that
“no one else can see.”

I need to become better at seeing with my heart.

Remember 42

April 12, 2025 Bill Pike2 Comments

                                                                             OPINION

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Remember 42

Regarding Kevin B. Blackstone’s April 7 Sports column, “Dodgers’ visit to White House goes against Robinson’s legacy”:

As reported in the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Dodgers accepted an invitation to visit the White House to recognize their 2024 World Series championship.

To me, the Dodgers’ management accepting this invitation is a disrespectful slap to Jackie Robinson, the first African American player to sign with and play in the major leagues, with the Brooklyn Dodgers.

How could the Dodgers, the team who made this courageous decision and commitment to bring Robinson into the major leagues, take such a backward step?

In his book “October 1964,” David Halberstam’s shared a story from Robinson’s time playing for the Kansas City Monarchs, a successful team in the Negro Leagues:

“There was a place in Muskogee, Oklahoma, where they had always gassed up, but where the owner never let them use the rest rooms. Robinson had not known that, so when the bus pulled in, ready to fill up its twin fifty-gallon tanks, he got out to go to the men’s room. “Where you going, boy?” the owner said, and Robinson answered that he was going to the men’s room. “No, you’re not,” the owner said. Robinson never hesitated. “Take the hose out of the tank!” he said immediately, and that was no idle threat, for one hundred gallons of gas was a big sale, a fair percentage of the amount of money the man might make on a given day. The man looked at Robinson and saw the anger and the strength on his face. He was not the first, and certainly not the last, white man to see that conviction, and he immediately backed down. “You boys can use the rest rooms,” he said. “Just don’t stay there too long.”

How can the Dodgers’ management be so blind by comparison?

Has fear of retribution from a vengeful president caused the Dodgers’ management to ignore the significance of the legacy of its 1947 signing of Robinson? Where is the “anger and strength” of the team’s integrity to turn down this shameful invitation?

According to Forbes, the Dodgers are valued at $6.8 billion.

Are the Dodgers more loyal to the preservation of those billions than to Robinson’s groundbreaking achievement?

Unfortunately, the answer seems to be yes.

Bill Pike, Richmond

Note from the author: Friends, I was honored to have my letter to the editor published in the Washington Post today, Saturday, April 12, 2025.

Heartbreakingly disgusted whining: dog poop, college athletics, more murders

January 11, 2025 Bill Pike7 Comments

Isolated in the back parking lot of our church is a dumpster. This dumpster is clearly marked for recycling materials.

Despite our attempt to be good neighbors, the dumpster was periodically contaminated by people who loaded it with items that can’t be recycled. As a result, we had to add padlocks on both sliding doors.

I don’t understand how a person can misunderstand the purpose of this dumpster.

Late on the afternoon of Friday, January 3, I walked across the parking lot with some cardboard to recycle.

When I unlocked a padlock on one of the sliding doors, I noted on the floor of the dumpster a small, tied off plastic bag. It was loaded with dog poop.

Disgusted, I asked myself how could a person do this?

Growing up in Burlington, North Carolina, I will always cherish playing baseball, basketball, and football with neighbors, friends, and cousins.

An empty field behind two houses became our “field of dreams” where we played baseball.

Out front, two lawns merged together nicely to form our football field.

And of course, whether dirt, concrete, or an asphalt court even on the coldest of winter days, we played basketball.

That love of sports made it easy to follow the basketball and football teams from the Atlantic Coast Conference(ACC).

Four of the founding schools, the University of North Carolina, N. C. State, Wake Forest, and Duke were in close proximity to Burlington.

I read newspaper accounts, listened to radio broadcasts, or watched on television games with the ACC teams.

Founded in 1953, the original conference has been destroyed by an expansion that completely disregarded geography, but was entirely grounded in a full court press for money.

That fixation on money has trickled down into the athletes too.

Now Name, Image, and Likeness—NIL allows college athletes to profit not only from their skills, but by marketing and promoting themselves.

Additionally, a transfer portal allows athletes to freely shop their skills. Loyalty to the school that originally wooed the gifted athlete is no longer a consideration.

Just before Christmas, several media outlets reported that Duke University’s athletic department will be paying Darian Mensah, a redshirt, transfer quarterback from Tulane University eight million dollars to play at Duke for two years.

I guess a degree from Tulane or Duke means nothing when stacked against eight millions dollars.

I wonder what Duke University employees who work behind the scenes for the football program think about this eight million dollar deal.

And I also wonder if those program sustaining employees ever see any extra pennies in their paychecks from the payout when the football team plays in a post season bowl game?

While we’re talking about paying millions for a college football quarterback to play for a couple of years, a school might opt to spend several million dollars to build a team in hopes of winning a national championship.

Again, media outlets have reported that the current edition of the Ohio State University Buckeyes football team came from twenty million dollars raised by “the school’s collectives.”

With these millions floating around in the pursuit of gifted players and national championships, I find it interesting that at these two prestigious universities, both schools have food pantries for their students who are food insecure.

Back on December 28, 2024, the football teams from East Carolina University and N.C. State University played each other in the Go Bowling Military Bowl.

An exciting hard played game was marred by a brawl as the last seconds of the fourth quarter were ticking away.

Players involved in this fray were out of control. It took too much effort and time for the coaching staffs and game officials to get the players on both teams under control.

One of the referees was injured as he tried to help settle down the players from both teams.

Watching this melee on television, I was disappointed by the lack of self-control from individual players, and their disrespect for the coaching staffs and officials who tried to quell the disorder.

In this madness, sportsmanship was dead. I kept hoping that the referee would stop the game, and send both teams to their locker rooms.

When order was finally restored, a few players from both team were ejected. The final seconds of the game were completed. Then the teams were directed toward their respective locker rooms.

I’m heartbreakingly disgusted with bagged dog poop in a recycling dumpster, money driving collegiate athletic conferences and their student athletes, and a college football bowl game marred by players in a brawl.

Disgusted as I might be, I should not be surprised. We’ve been losing our minds for a long, long, long time.

Yes, what’s left of my old brain shows that I’m losing my mind too, but losing my mind is grounded in worry.

December of 2024 brought us more to worry about than bagged dog poop and athletic madness.

The CEO of United Health Care was brazenly murdered in New York City.

At the Abundant Life Christian School in Madison Wisconsin two students were murdered by one of their classmates.

And just as the New Year started more innocent people were murdered by a traitorous driver who plowed his vehicle into the streets of New Orleans, Louisiana.

Yes, we continue to break hearts, we continue to be disgusted, and we continue to be paralyzed to solve our madness.

At this point, you must be thinking, Bill, with these blog posts, all you do is whine, whine, whine, whine. Is your whining ever going to stop?

Fair question, and I don’t disagree with your assessment.

Maybe my whining is grounded in these questions for myself from Isaiah Chapter 1 verse 17: “when am I going to become better at helping to cease evil, when am I going to become better at doing good, when am I going to become better at seeking justice, and when am I going to become better at rescuing the oppressed?”

Perhaps, the answer can be found in Fritz Knapp’s book— The Book of Sports Virtues.

In one chapter, Knapp writes about Branch Rickey. Early in the 1940s, Branch Rickey was the general manager for the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team. Mr. Rickey helped to break the color barrier in major league baseball when he signed Jackie Robinson to be the first African American player to play major league baseball.

Mr. Rickey’s motto was “Education Never Stops.”

If I want to stop my heartbreakingly disgusted whining, then I must not let my education stop.

That learning is the only chance I have to become better at working toward ceasing evil, doing more good, seeking justice, and rescuing the oppressed.

In the time I have left in this wobbling old world, I will be heartbreakingly disgusted with myself if I don’t use my learning and my voice to keep poking at those challenges.

How about you?

Maybe your answer can be found in these words from Stephen Hawking: “Quiet people have the loudest minds.”

Thanks for putting up with me, love, Bill