Bob Schwartz

If you say “pitchers and catchers” to a baseball fan, they understand. It is the beginning of Major League Baseball Spring Training. Pitchers and catchers arrive first, to get more work in. Then the rest of the roster arrives, along with prospects invited for evaluation. We are a little more than a month until the regular season starts.

Baseball as a distraction is no sin, just as being a fan of other sports, or music, or any cultural phenomenon needs no justification. As regularly pointed out, Bart Giamatti was President of Yale University before he became—a tenure cut very short by his death—Commissioner of MLB. He loved the game, wrote movingly about it. If it was good enough for him, it’s good enough for anybody.

That this spring, this year, some of us might seek distraction is no secret. The thing about distraction is that like everything it should be in balance. There is a life to lead and a nation to tend. As citizens we should pay attention and act appropriately. As fans, though, we know about fresh starts. Every game, every inning, every pitch and at bat is a new possibility. It all starts here and now.

© 2025 by Bob Schwartz