"The Boys of Fall" - Commentary by Tony Seton

The Boys of Fall

They call ‘em the boys of summer, baseball players, who actually spend the spring and summer getting ready forthe fall. Reggie Jackson, one of the greats of the game who performed well in the post-season, was referred to as Mr. October. I watched him hit three home runs in a World Series game many years ago.

A lady friend of mine reported that of all the sports figures with whom she’s figured in a sporting position, and apparently she enjoyed a considerable frame of reference, baseball players were the best between the sheets. The problem, she said, was they were also the dumbest.

I raise this because as I was getting ready to watch a tape the other night, the program behind the VCR was a baseball game. Yeah, it’s that time of the year, still. I knew that from the news headlines, of course, but wasn’t paying attention to the teams or scores because for many years, baseball has been less of a sport and more of a business.

Has that meant that the baseballers are smarter? Doesn’t appear that way. It’s hard to tell by the way they play, but looking at the faces, it doesn’t seem likely the two teams could field both an I and a Q. I think if they were ever to add a base or changed the route around the diamond, half the players would wash out.

Making them look better, however, are the commentators. They struggle mightily with the facts, but when they try to work through an actual thought, all is pretty much lost. They’re better off sticking to statistics and implausible observations like referring to the people in the dugout as "the brain trust."

This was a playoff game of some sort. They used to have two leagues and one seven-game World Series. Now they’ve inserted a coupla levels of these play-offs to provide more television time to sell to support an average player salary of $2.5 million.

I suppose it doesn’t matter, I suppose baseball will always be America’s pasttime.

And that’s SetonnoteS...I’m Tony Seton.