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Originally posted by oregonblue
Warren, I agree with your position and believe in fidelity to the game and its rules. Unfortunately, loyalty to one's assn. and the duty to err on the side of the integrity of the game are sometimes mutually exclusive. What then???
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We ADJUST, Pat. That's what. It isn't that we succeed that matters as much as that we make the effort. I have never officiated under the constraints that many of you guys suffer because of your system of competitive contracts for associations. I just can't know what that is like. At some point, though, I'm sure we all simply weigh what is being asked against our conscience and make a decision. Carl has drawn his line somewhere east of the seven attitudes he abhors. You must have drawn your own line somewhere, otherwise you wouldn't feel compelled to even address these issues. It is true to say that you cannot change such a system from the outside. Perhaps you must choose the lesser of two evils. Or perhaps you can see another course to remove the conflict. What are YOU going to do about it? Only you can say for you.
Quote:
Originally posted by oregonblue
Is it presumptious to think that any of us has a responsibility to protect the purity of the game??? I used to think that the game I love was being prostituted, being turned into a whore, and that I, having put her on such a pedestal, had to defend her from all the mediocrity and expediency of the world. The game is bigger than any of us, and all of us...and will survive by maintaining contact with the old game, while absorbing the new. (I still don't think they play real baseball in the American League!)
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Of course the game is bigger than us as individuals. Of course it will survive, but only because of people who believe it is their responsibility to HELP the game maintain contact with its roots while it assimilates new ideas and attitudes. I lament even today that the PBUC is making interpretations that are patently "whorish" in their nature. That doesn't mean I don't understand the effort that body is making to protect and promote
their version of the game. It's just that theirs is a necessarily selfish effort. I just wish it wasn't at the expense of the integrity of the rules and their original underlying intentions. No, I don't think it is "presumptuous" to think that any of us has a "responsibility to protect the purity of the game". On the contrary, that is precisely our charter as delivered by OBR 9.01(b)
when we are on the diamond. Out there we ARE the representatives of baseball, and all it aspires to be! Even if the "girl" that baseball once was in your heart and mind grows old and wrinkled, love her just the same Pat. Her spirit will remain unchanged if you keep that "girl" alive in your heart.
Quote:
Originally posted by oregonblue
I sometimes forget that to most folks, the baseball field is just a part of the real world, and not some insulated artificial environment where every thing that is done and said doesn't leave the field. And in a culture that views rules with distaste, sports officials (and baseball umpires in particular) will never get the respect they deserve.
JMO, Pat, Rogue Valley
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Perhaps so, Pat. Like the Knights Templar, however, our charter doesn't come with a promise of a reward in this life. We are the guardians for future generations, too. Our contribution, however small, will be counted in the joy of those who have yet to discover the game and probably not in our own lifetimes. That makes it perhaps an even worthier effort, simply because the rewards are not ours to reap. It must be enough for now that we each know and respect the effort that another of us makes in that quest.
Cheers,
[Edited by Warren Willson on Feb 12th, 2001 at 01:57 AM]