Posted on by Californiacontrarian

Major Leaguer ?

Someone, who had played and coached baseball, once told me that he could pretty much predict which of those good players in the minor leagues would be able to hit major league pitching. 

“Many of these young minor league players can hit a fastball, and so a lot of them just sit on a fastball, because they cannot hit a curveball. In order to hit well in the big leagues, you need to be able to hit a major league curve, and this requires two basic things. 

“First, within nanoseconds, good hitters can pick up the different spin on the curveball as it leaves the pitcher’s hand. Not everyone can recognize that difference in the spin quick enough, and they most likely will never be a good hitter as they will be fed a diet of curveballs which they cannot recognize and therefore cannot hit.

“The second important piece of being able to hit a curveball is something that probably cannot be taught. As some of you may not be aware, the curve ball starts coming directly at the batter, before it changes direction and “curves” over the plate. In order to be able to hit a curveball, not only must a good hitter recognize the spin . . . but he must have the fortitude stand his ground. 

If a hitter bails out when the ball is coming directly at him, even if he knows that it’s a curveball, no way will he be successful. 

“Good hitters have to stand their ground. Good hitters do not back away when the going starts to get tough (when the ball is coming right at them). . . good hitters know what’s coming, and they do not back off.”

I am not a big baseball fan, so what’s all this talk about baseball? Well it seems to me that there is a similarity between a good hitter standing firm in the batter’s box when he know that a curve ball is coming, and a good governor standing firm when he knows things are starting to look bad. If someone’s loosens his tight fisted grip on the economy, he should certainly know that there will be more Covid cases. If there had been no spike in cases when the businesses were opened, then one might ask why the businesses had been closed in the first place! I asked my four year old granddaughter what would happened when the playgrounds were eventually opened up. She responded that more kids would hurt themselves – falling off the swings, falling down when they finished sliding down the slide. 

So what’s the difference? When one thing happens, another can be predicted to follow.

Some insurance companies have given rebates because less automobile use has led to less accidents. These rebates will not continue when more people are out driving again. Why? Because it will be inevitable that there will be more accidents. Likewise when the economy starts to open up, there will inevitably be more Covid cases. 

The problem here in California is that the Governor should have recognized the curveball (he opened up the economy, and should have anticipated an increase in coronavirus cases), but instead of standing staunch in the batter’s box, he bailed when the pitch was headed for him (cases going up as would be expected, and now he reinstitutes prior lockdowns) 

The aforementioned baseball coach would never have predicted that our governor would ever make it as a reliable major leaguer! (He panicked and bailed when he could have stood pat when things got tough.)

7/15/20

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