One of the rules I always wanted to see changed in baseball is that there should be a penalty if the batter hits the catcher with the follow through of his bat. Over the course of my career, I have seen a catcher have his arm broken, a catcher knocked unconscious with a concussion and having to be taken to the hospital, as well as multiple catchers having to be removed from the game because they were hit so hard by the bat they couldn’t continue.
This is a new phenomenon in baseball over the last 20 years as hitters’ swings have gotten longer with longer follow throughs because they no longer keep two hands on the bat at all times. It is next to impossible to hit the catcher with the follow through if the hitter keeps both hands on the bat. I have suggested this rule change to no avail to the MHSAA and the National Federation of High School Sports. The response is that they do not see it as a big problem.
In last night’s game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Atlanta Braves, the issue raised its ugly head again and nearly resulted in a skirmish between the catcher and the batter as Braves batter Marcel Ozuna hit Dodger catcher Will Smith in the head with the follow through on his swing and miss. Naturally, Smith wasn’t happy and he expressed his displeasure to Ozuna. Fortunately, cool heads prevailed. See my Video of the Day.
In my opinion batters should be required to control their bats to prevent injury to other players. Hockey requires its players to control their sticks, if not they are penalized for high sticking or slashing. There is no reason why baseball should require the same of batters.
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Yesterday, I received a lesson in living in Petoskey full time when talking to one of my friends at the gym. I asked her if she had any special plans for the summer and her response was a reality check for me. “Why would I have any special plans for the summer when I live in the place where everyone else comes to visit for their summer vacations.” She is so right.
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Carmelo Anthony announced his retirement from the NBA today. I was somewhat surprised because I didn’t realize he was still a player. I guess 19 years is enough. Melo had a special career both on and off the court. As a freshman at Syracuse, he led them to the national championship. He is the only men’s player in U.S. Olympic history, to play on four Olympic basketball teams, including three gold medal teams and a bronze medal team. To achieve this feat, means he was one of the top 12 players in the U.S. covering a span of 13 years. Only Keven Durant has anything close to his Olympic achievements.
At the 2016 Olympics Americans were told, explicitly, not to go into the “favelas” — the neighborhoods in the hills above the city that housed many of Rio’s poorest citizens. “Unsafe! Crime! Stay away!” We were told, over and over. Yet Carmelo went in, with no security detail, over and over, to visit with people that were shocked and delighted to see him.
He did it, he said, to give a voice to those who were voiceless, after being reluctant earlier in his career to speak out. That he was doing so after winning his third gold medal and being the unquestioned leader of that ’16 U.S. team, spoke to how, while he will no doubt be remembered as a great scorer, he had become much, much more.
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It is T-minus 8 days and counting until the U.S reaches the projected debt ceiling limit. I wish our political leaders would put their differences aside and do what is right for the county and get on with increasing the debt ceiling limit. In my humble opinion, the deficit concerns should be addressed in the annual budget development which is the responsibility of the House and the President.
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Quote of the Day: “i didn’t see our names” One of my friends commenting on Putin’s list of those not allowed to enter Russia.
Orchid of the Day: Duncan Robinson, the former Wolverine who was not drafted, is having a great playoff for the Miami Heat who are one win away from making the NBA Finals as the Eastern Conference champions, even though they were the number 8 seed heading into the playoffs.
Onion of the Day: Members of the Illinois catholic clergy who sexually abused so many innocent children. More than 450 Catholic clergy in Illinois sexually abused nearly 2,000 children since 1950, the state’s attorney general found in an investigation released Tuesday, revealing that the problem was far worse than the church had let on. Attorney General Kwame Raoul said at a news conference that investigators found that 451 Catholic clergy abused 1,997 children in Illinois between 1950 and 2019, though he acknowledged that the statute of limitations has expired in many cases and that those abusers “will never see justice in a legal sense.”
Question of the Day: How did so many catholic clergy get away with abuse for so long in so many parishes throughout the world?
Video of the Day.
Benches clear in Braves-Dodgers over Marcell Ozuna backswing
https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/mlb/benches-clear-in-braves-dodgers-over-marcell-ozuna-backswing/ar-AA1bxXbG?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=015378d5f9e44a5f8055798ffe46b557&ei=11