Good morning,
I thought I’d start this week with a potpourri on very different subjects—of different seriousness and perspective.
SHOHEI IT AIN’T SO!
The baseball world is roiled with the news that the greatest player of his generation—arguably one of the greatest players in the history of the game—may have been involved in gambling on sports. The allegations of gambling fortunately primarily involve his interpreter and do not involve betting on baseball. The federal and Major League Baseball investigations hopefully will clarify the currently quite blurry facts, conflicting recollections, and concerning innuendos.
This is not the first great baseball scandal. The most famous example was the 1919 Black Sox, the Chicago White Sox team generally accepted to be the favorite in the World Series. Many of the players were involved with Arnold Rothstein, the notorious gangster. While the team clearly threw games to help bookmakers, some players still had great series. One of them was one of the greatest players of his time, Shoeless Joe Jackson. In the end, despite impressive numbers posted by both Shoeless Joe and Eddie Cicotte, a number of the players were banned from baseball for life. The phrase, voiced by a young fan as Joe walked by, has entered the lexicon, “Say it ain’t so, Joe.”
Another famous scrape with gambling interests was when Pete Rose was a manager. He placed bets on sports, including baseball (though never against his own team). Baseball banned him for life and this man, arguably the greatest hitter of all time, is not enshrined in the Hall of Fame to this day.
What will happen here? If Shohei is exonerated, nothing much will happen. But if Shohei helped bail out his interpreter’s gambling debts, Major League Baseball will be in a tough spot. My bet is that this monolith of American capitalism and hero worship will figure a way out of this jam and avoid strict punishments of its marquee player.
And what might letting Shohei off easily might mean? In my dreams, perhaps this will give Major League Baseball, itself now actively supporting sports betting, an excuse to finally embrace Pete Rose, flaws and all.
ARE THE DEMOCRATS THE NEW PARTY OF CONSERVATION?
As Donald Trump attempts to remake the Republican party in his image, consistent with the vision of his most virulent supporters, much of the old conservative doctrine of the party is falling by the wayside. That said, the Democrats seem increasingly to be the party that wants to conserve things. Here are a few of the things they, under Joe Biden’s leadership, are seeking to conserve:
Preserve American democracy
Preserve a woman’s sovereignty over her body and protect women’s lives over those of fetuses
Preserve a separation of church and state
Be fiscally responsible (manifest in reeling back some of the Trump tax advantages for corporations and the wealthy)
Increase American productivity and competitiveness (as manifest in the Infrastructure bill and the CHIPS act)
Preserve America’s participation in NATO and its position on the global stage (including continued support of Ukraine’s fight for survival)
A CURIOUS OBSERVATION ABOUT ADJECTIVES
I found this wonderful curiosity but can’t recall the author: Adjectives in English absolutely have to be in this order: opinion, size, age, shape, colour, origin, material, purpose, and Noun. So you can have a lovely little old rectangular green French silver whittling knife. But if you mess with that word order in the slightest you'll sound like a maniac. It's an odd thing that every English speaker uses that list, but almost none of us could write it out. And as size comes before colour, green great dragons can't exist.
CIRCULAR LOGIC
A Dad joke to get the week going:
Did you know that the man who invented the Ferris Wheel and the man who invented the Carousel never met each other? Apparently, they traveled in different circles…
Have a great week,
Glenn
Thanks for sharing Mr.Glenn!