Yesterday, I let fly with some remarks relating to, or springing from, baseball reform. I’d like to revise and extend my remarks, as they say in Congress.
Readers, including my mother, have convinced me that baseball is now too slow, and unnaturally slow. Some commonsensical rules would return it to its former, more reasonable, and more natural pace. There are too many “delays of game” in today’s baseball. These are un-baseball-like — and to that extent, they should be eliminated.
I am for any improvement (genuine improvement). I would just beware a dumbing down, or a mindless jazzing up.
Golf, of course, is too slow — not merely on the professional tours but, more seriously, in recreational golf. The problem came in the 1950s and ’60s, as I understand it: People started watching the pros on television, and imitating them over at their muni. (N.B.: “Muni” is our shorthand for “municipal golf course.”) They started lining up putts as though on the 72nd hole of the U.S. Open. They plumb-bobbed. They adopted lengthy pre-shot routines. Etc.
The result of all this was five- or six-hour rounds — which are not golf-like. Not natural.
You know who the biggest offender was (way back)? Jack Nicklaus. He was slower than anybody, but since he was the best, no one said anything. Worse, younger players, who idolized him (rightly), imitated him.
Hell, we would do anything Jack did — such as leave our glove on when we putted. (Come to think of it, that might speed up play, slightly.)
I should have thought of all this before I typed my original Hot Stove League remarks. I simply have an allergy to attempts to be popular. I’ve seen the harm such attempts do in music, politics, journalism, sports, religion, and personal life.
You know what I’m talmbout? (“Talking about.”)