As I watched this week’s MLB Home Run Derby and All-Star game, I could not help but marvel at the evolution of the home run.
However, I am not sure if that evolution is for the better of the game.
There is no question that home runs are up, even in the so-called “Post-Steroid Era”. Consider that the per game rate in 2014 was .86. That rose to 1.01 in 2015, 1.16 in 2016, and 1.26 in 20017. This was topped off by both single-season and World Series all-time records for homers in 2017, and then this week, a record for All-Star Game home runs.
Even scientists hired by MLB to explain the home run surge could not, other than citing less wind resistance. They stopped short of saying global warming and so will I.
Why does the increase in home runs concern me? Because when one of the game’s most exciting aspects loses its rarity, so too does it lose some of its value. If there were a Big Foot citing every few hours, no one would give a damn. The rarity of it is a part of its value.
This brings us to credit.
I am a child of the 60’s and fiscally conservative parents…by necessity. They were working-class and had mouths to feed, and thus frivolous spending was not an option. Going through our father’s records upon his death in 1991, I remember coming across a credit card statement with a limit of $5000.
He owed a grand total of about $400.
He was of a generation that generally used credit for big-ticket items and unexpected needs. Vacations did not qualify.
Somewhere along the line, predatory creditors learned that there was profit in exploiting the desire of working class and middle class Americans to indulge their Walter Mitty aspirations to live beyond their means. As a result, credit was made a lot easier to attain and the outcome was the near financial collapse of about 10 years ago.
This brings us to the only reason some of you are reading this column: SEX!
Back in the day, you had to date a girl 3 times just to get a kiss. Not anymore and as a result, appreciation for one of life and nature’s greatest activities has dropped to an all-time low. Ok, I have absolutely no research to support this assertion….but I know it to be true and so do you. As that great philosopher Dave Chappelle once said,
“If p…… was a stock, that shit would be plummeting right now, because you flooded the market with it. You give it away too easy.”
We could add the 3-point shot in basketball and two-minute touchdown drives in football in this same category. What do they all have in common: they are examples that it is human nature to take for granted that which comes easily and in the process, it is devalued.
Therefore, I say that we would appreciate baseball more if there were fewer home runs.
We would have less debt if credit were not so easy to get.
We would have a greater appreciation for sex, if we had it in less quantity.
Well, maybe I got a little carried away with that last one. Appreciation can be overrated! Ha!
