Taxes, Pronouns and Baseball

Mark Bausch

posted April 26


Nearly two decades ago, a sports talk show hosted by yours truly went off the rails after it was mentioned that the state of Illinois had authorized a one dollar increase in the licensing fee for motor vehicles.
 
At the other microphone was a friendly enough fellow [a newly-minted member of the Tea Party (Taxed Enough Already)] who, for about five minutes...while on the air...literally lost his marbles while explaining the absolute horror of a 2% increase in the cost of licensing each of his motorbikes.

The board op for that show turned off the Tea Partier's microphone; the outburst was remarkable in its intensity.

In retrospect, turning off his microphone was a mistake--the shouting and shrieking made for great radio.

But in real time, the vitriol expressed that day was shocking. Every day, remnants of that anger course through the veins of our country's citizens.

It is as if people have lost their minds.


Another surprising expression of anger came from a musician that anyone who has listened to pop music on the radio for the past four decades has heard.

Kasim Sulton is widely recognized as one of the world's best bass players and is probably best-known for his work with Todd Rundgren and the rock band Utopia.

While attending an event honoring Rundgren on the occasion of his 75th birthday, it was my pleasure to speak with Sulton for about ninety minutes.

During that conversation, the subject of 'proper' pronoun usage was broached.

Sulton came loaded for bear, and over the course of a few minutes, he explained his views on the topic: the 'woke' perspective on pronouns, one that involves gender neutrality as far as certain pronouns are concerned, was perhaps the worst 'invention' of the twenty-first century. That one of Sulton's children had adopted this new view of pronoun usage only made things worse for Sulton, whose outburst was similar in intensity to that of the aforementioned Tea Party member.

So there's money, and then there's pronoun usage. You never know a man's pressure points. Or a woman's, for that matter.


Back to sports.

Another conversation that took a surprising turn occurred a few years ago in a far corner of the Busch Stadium press box.

I am able to write more freely about this chat if my conversational partner remains unidentified.

The individual in question was known as a rather cerebral player, both on and off the field.

I introduced myself and, among other topics, we discussed the attributes and potential of Paul DeJong (the Cards All-Star shortstop at the time), Bruce Sutter's splitter and how, as much as anything, it was an effective change-up, and the fact that LeBron James, who writes using his left hand and is a natural southpaw, has stated that he shoots a basketball righthanded because that is how Michael Jordan did it.

I then made the 'mistake' of relaying my observation that, in my daughter's middle school softball games... the coaching staffs for about half of her opponents were calling pitches from the dugout, relaying them to their respective catchers, who then flashed signs to their pitchers. I centered my comments on the fact that this process significantly lengthened the time of each at-bat, and therefore, each softball game.

But my press box partner would hear none of this, in terms of his primary problem with coaching staffs calling pitches.

Like the Tea Party radio guest and tax hikes, and like the rock star and woke pronouns, pitches called from the dugout (instead of the catcher) struck a nerve with the man, who became quite animated when explaining his view that it is essential for a catcher to call pitches in a ballgame, in order for that catcher to become a complete student of the game of baseball--to become a catcher.

He then went into detail about an occasion when he was informed that a minor league team in his organization had adopted a policy of taking away the responsibility of calling pitches from the team's catchers and instead required dugout staffers to call pitches. He refused to supply details but he was successful in conveying his disgust with the policy, one that he changed...after direct conversations with those who ordered the new policy. 

What had been a low-key conversation turned into something quite different; rather unintentionally (but lucky for me) I was able to see, first-hand, the passion that this man had as far as baseball was concerned.


So for some it is taxes and money. For others, it is pronoun usage.

The magic button for at least one former big-leaguer, it is calling pitches from the dugout.


For a similar view on calling pitches from the dugout, click here (hat top to Lynn Worthy at stltoday.com)


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