seriously? are you kidding? every year hundreds of fans get hurt, maimed, and even killed while trying to get a souvenir baseball. An eight dollar baseball folks!!! A baseball hit, or sometimes thrown into the stands by a well to do player. Not every one of these poor sods is tanked up on dollar beers, or an over aggressive 40 something knocking over an eight year old girl, then ripping the ball out of her tiny little hands, proudly showing to the world of your accomplishment. Sometimes it is just a father with his son being in the wrong place at the wrong time. As we have seen by the most recent tragic events in Texas, it was a father with his son. A father with 17 years on the fire department. With his years as a fireman, he was probably one of the most trained people in the stadium to handle and deal with an adverse situation, but his desire for an eight dollar baseball, a baseball, most likely for his son, and being in the wrong place at the wrong time, combined with a momentary laps in judgment, and well, sadly we all have seen, or heard of his tragic death. Now major league baseball with its infinite wisdom has announced that they are going to introduce a baseball worth $150.00 in its home run derby during all star weekend. These baseballs are going to be launched into the stands by some of the biggest, baddest players on earth. Gee wiz, I cant see anything that could go wrong with that... Remember the television show back in the 70's, WKRP in Cincinnati? They once had a thanksgiving promo where they threw hundreds of turkeys from a helicopter, before anyone realized that turkeys cant fly.... ooops!!! Well launching $150.00 baseballs off the bats of the strongest men in the game is just as stupid.!!! It's an accident waiting to happen. Listen up fellas... Baseball is absolutely the most beautiful and pure sport in the world. Part of it's splendor, is that it is played, managed, officiated, owned, and spectated by humans. Humans who are fallible and make mistakes. It is what makes the game perfect, it's imperfections. Please don't add stupid to that. Remember, turkeys cant fly. For the players in the derby, honor the game....when they introduce the gold ball after your second out, simply swing and miss, then walk away, so that not one fan gets hurt, maimed, or even dies scrambling for a $150.00 souvenir.
