On the Huston Astros Sign Stealing Scandal—A Sign of the Times?

Our world is changing (deteriorating)so fast. Can our national sport not be immune? 

The allure of baseball...the quintessential American game— is its promise of spring training,  thrill of opening day, the sight of the green infield diamond and sandy pitcher’s mound,  the white pentagon of home plate, as well  the green, oh so bright  green of an the outfield grass in an urban park. It is the brings the promise of a 162 game season,  number-crunching of batting and pitching statistics, and the easy relaxed pace of play on a summer day....all interspersed with the roar of the crowd when a homer scorches through the sky and into the bleachers.  And most importantly for America the game supports feelings of decency and good sportsmanship.

The recent scandal of the Huston Astros has smeared our national game.  

What did they do? 

The essence of  baseball is a duel in the sun  between a burly  batter of team one and a slim, lithe pitcher of the other team. The latter  stands on a slight elevated mound where he gracefully delivers a sewn, leather-covered sphere —the hardball—so it speeds over the white pentagon of home plate 60.5 feet away.  The contest combines elements of.deadly Spanish bull fighting, and dangerous  swordplay, with the quiet strategy of (boring and horribly confusing) British cricket.  Sadly the mental and physical combat between pitcher and batter—the main contestants—  is mostly hidden from the fans—even those in the best box seats down near home plate.   It is this pure essence of combat between equal opponents which the Astros schemed to overturn and upset for their own base motives. 

In this silent battle, the catcher, garbed like a medieval jouster  in his face mask and padded outfit and armed with a huge  round leather “mitt” to safely intercept the 95 + mile per hour hardball thrown from pitcher’s mound to batter.  The batter’s goal is to hit the ball and drive it as far as he can. While the objective of the pitcher is  to prevent his opponent from achieving his goal.  

The pitcher and catcher work together to achieve their goal in this sun drenched  ballet  on grass and sand supported by massive amounts of money, notoriety all organized by Major League Baseball teams in two major leagues..

The catcher is the only player who can see the entire field, arrayed behind the pitcher where threats like baserunners and shifting player positions can be seen.  He also knows the batting predilections and propensities of the particular opposing player in the batter’s box.. He knows where this guy likes to swing his fat hickory stick to possibly send the ball driving just over the pitcher’s head or skyward into the bleachers.  To facilitate their strategy to strike out  this batter catcher and pitcher work together as a team.  The catcher  signals the pitcher as to what type of pitch to throw, and where to direct it  so as to fool the batter so his mighty swings miss the ball three times.  Or he is fooled by passing up balls within  the strike zone that he passes p on. In either case—swinging out or being called out—after “three” he must retire him in defeat to his  dugout.  

How it works.  After agreeing to the signal from the catcher, the pitcher in his windup arches backward like  a  limber fishing rod then lurches forward  his lower body moving faster and his upper body, arm and ball hand  lagging behind to accentuate the  slinging motion that must be made as he springs forward. Then with a final crisp snap of his wrist, the ball flies off —-aimed at the narrow 17 inch wide (batter’s shoulders to kneecap height) target of home plate.  

The ball speeds away from the relaxed hand, taking only 1/4 of a second  to reach the plate. In that instant  the batter must decide— is this ball a strike (over the plate and above my knees up to about elbow height ), or a ball (out of the strike zone). If its within the strike zone and the batter does not swing—he is penalized with a called “strike”. The umpire standing behind, watching all, will call “strike!”. (It’s of course “three strikes —you’re out”).  So in that 0.25 second interval the batter must decide—“shall I swing or not?”.  The batter box  is no place for slow thinkers or “pitch shoppers”. 

Those are the essential elements, but the  actual contest is more complex—and intriguing. While the batter wields a fearsome looking 2.6 inch thick mass of hickory wood club to swing in an powerful arc to intercept the speeding ball (the ball is a tiny bit wider at 3 inches in diameter), the pitcher also has an array of tricks and stratagems to prevent the colossal  collision of wood and leather—and a “hit” or home run— from happening.  As a result the contest between batter and pitcher are always in delicate exquisite balance.  Only the most talented and best trained pitcher can strike out a great hitter and visa versa. 

On the pitcher’s side  he  can snap his wrist at the last millisecond of ball-release to alter the flight of the ball in several subtle and different ways. The wrist snap is often coupled with a grip of the ball  dominated by one or more of his fingers in such a way that the ball will leave the hand rotating one way or another in the air —and this rotation affects ball flight—generating various curving paths over its only one-quarter second flight.  Most pitchers can throw a “fast ball”( straight, no curve and very fast flight); a “change up” (slow and curving flight), a “curve ball” (slower,  but with a sharp change in direction just before reaching the plate) and several variations of these—such as the slider and screw ball.  

In addition to this the catcher-pitcher team use psychology in an attempt to “play” the batter by accustoming him  to one ball speed, curving flight or direction, and then confusing him with a change of speed or type of pitch.  Typically a series of curve balls might be followed by a “fast ball”,  or a  “change up”.  Strategy:Get him to see your curve ball.  Make him miss it. Then follow this pitch with a “change up”, a slow ball that may make him swing too early.  It is a cat and mouse game between two highly trained, practiced and determined opponents.  There are other stratagems as well.  The pitcher-catcher team my direct the ball to the outside of the plate—just inside enough to be  a  strike, then throw the next one on the inside—so close that the batter may have to back up. These stratagems are the essence, of the real contest going on at home plate.  

To effectively play this game, the pitcher-catcher team must cooperate and effectively communicate.  The catcher uses hand signals (generally) to indicate to the pitcher what pitch to throw.  When the catcher crouches down behind the plate ready to catch the pitch,  he uses his throwing hand, held close to his crotch to signal to the pitcher. Down in his crouch only the pitcher can see his hand and the signals he is sending.  Often one finger held down between the catcher’s thighs is a call for a fast ball, two fingers—a curve ball, three fingers a change up, four fingers calls for a slider (etc)   These signals can be modified to be used to designate “in” (close to the batter)  and “out” pitches too. 

These are the intriguing aspects  of play that most fans do no see, but are the essential—critical components of the game that decide wins or losses. . The central contest of the game is that between the batter and pitcher.  The infielders and outfielders —the part the fans can observe  clearly on field —and roar or boo over—are only one-half of the game—the defense side.  The offensive part —the main part—of the game is that which is taking place mostly unseen between batter and the pitcher-catcher team. 

It now must be clear to you my readers,  that if a batter knows exactly  just what type of pitch is coming next, he has a great advantage over the pitcher.  He could  more effectively hit it. And he can not be “played” by the pitcher.  Such knowledge could change the outcomes of games—enabling a less proficient team to win over a more practiced better trained team.   That’s just what the Huston Astro’s did in 2017 -2018 games.

Stealing catcher’s hand signs is cheating.  Just as a golfer moving his ball to a better lie, or ignoring the  two extra strokes he or she took in that sand bunker is—- cheating. Stealing signs in baseball goes to the essence, the heart of the game—it should not be tolerated. 

But that’s just what the Huston Astros did in the 2017 and 2018 seasons.  They used elaborate scheme and modern technology to video-graph the opposing team catcher with a telephoto lens set in the bleachers in a centerfield position. From that position they could telescopes in on the catcher’s legs while he is in his crouch. The video of the catcher signaling the pitcher was was transmitted to a bunker behind the Astro’s dugout, where a team member would be posted. The Astro team member viewing the video screen would identify the sign and then signal the batter at the plate  by some means.  The Astro’s  used various methods to indicate to the batter shat pitch was coming—such as flashing lights, loud whistles, and most often the sound generated by rapping a baseball bat against an empty metal garbage can.  These signals indicated the next pitch would be.  

A recent investigation by MLB just released (January 2020) revealed the details of the scheme , who participated, and what technology  they used. They stole signs mostly at home games during the 2017 season, and post season 2017, during which they won the league Pennant and then won the World Series.  

The Astros gave baseball and the MLB organization a black eye.  They hurt us all. 

Rush Limbaugh a homophobe? No!

Rush Limbaugh recently commented negatively on presidential candidate Pete Buttiigieg’s openly expressed  homosexuality and same sex marriage.

Limbaugh was immediately labeled a “homophobe” by the main stream “progressive” media.  

Homophobia is a misnomer coined by homosexuals to obscure the reality of their behavior.  (Let us not ignore the pain and suffering of youthful victims of sexual predators as well as the economic fall out of massive abuse case suits, in the billions of dollars, against the Diocese of Catholic Churches and  the Boy Scouts of America).

Men do not experience “homophobia” when they are forced to encounter blaring homosexuality.  They experience only revulsion.  The term “homophobia” suggests ”fear” of homosexuals.  There is no fear.  The actual feelings engendered are closer to disgust and revulsion. The sensation is akin to that experienced watching someone at your dinner table determined to verbally express themselves forcefully  with their mouth full of partly chewed food.  Thus a more accurate term for this form of human aberration  is “homorevlsion” not homophobia.

Rush Limbaugh is not homophobic but simply expressing a form of  valid homorevulsion.

CHINESE EXCHANGE—WE GET VIRUS THEY GET GOOD JOBS

The Chinese got our technology and our factories and millions of our well-paying jobs; while as a result of the “Chines Exchange”  we got the Asian Flu SARS and the 2019 novel Corona Virus.  Globalization was a boon to China—and the top 1/10 of one percent of our big shots—the rest of us got the short end of the stick.  When do our political  leaders right and left get the point? 

In 1972 -the same year of President Richard Nixon’s now infamous “opening to China” American author Alfred Crosby published a book on environmental history entitled: “The Columbian Exchange” .  Crosby’s book  documented the exchanges of culture, goods, animals and plants which were passed between Europe and the New World after 1492.  Cosby  named the process after Christopher Columbus.   In the Colombian “exchange” European explorers came back to Europe with new plants such as corn (maize), potatoes, tomatoes, coffee(!) and tobacco (and many others) :  while Europeans brought with them as introductions to the New World animas such as horses, pigs, chickens, goats, donkeys, and even the honey bee, to the New World.  Sadly it was not only the critters they carried in the holds of their ships but also disease that European explorers carried with them.  When they landed in the New World they introduced  all the common communicable diseases of Europe and the west: the mumps, plague, small pox, chicken pox  and malaria. Some claim western indigenous natives may have carried syphilis which was carried by European sailors back hometo the west.  These western common childhood diseases often devastated whole tribes and communities of indigenous peoples who had no resistance to these common diseases.  In those years of the exchanges the main impetus for the Colombian exchanges were —simple greed.  Men could make a tidy profit if you had sole access to a new plant or new animal.  

Well nothing much has changed.    

Today we are still experiencing the fallout from an later cultural and economic exchange—this one between the USA and China—the  “Nixonian exchange”.  It was President Richard Nixon who got the brilliant idea in 1972, to normalize relations with China.  Nixon saw his “opening”  as a ploy to build  leverage over the  Soviet Union—At that time we were fighting  what was termed a Cold War conflict with the Soviet Union.  The objectives were to force concessions from the Soviets and —what was so brilliant about it —was that it would make a lot of American business men enormously rich.  Again the motive was profits.  US companies greedily eyed the potential profits which were right there before them in they could get access to the billions of Chinese consumers.  Nothing much has changed since 1972 —our leaders and our business leaders are still bending over backwards to the Chinese—even givinging up technological secrets—just to get access to those 1.4 billion consumers (2020)  which increase by a rate of 7 million more consumers annually . 

Just as in the Colombian Exchange, the driving force for the Nixonian Exchange was profits and greed.  Nixon and his scheming side kick Kissinger had no thought of long term consequences for the US worker.  In 1972 who would have thought that the USA would eventually transfer its top technology, its know how and well-paying  jobs of million upon millions of American workers to tiny villages in China and the eager low wage Chinese workers.  Why?  Because business owners,entrepreneurs  and elites could line their pockets with gold by cutting labor costs, production costs, sell their product to billions of Chinese for enormous profits while continuing  to hold market share in the USA in communities they abandoned to joblessness, empty rusting factories and hollowed middle working class.  The massive disparity between righ and middle class we have here in the USA which Democrats so often point to—yeah its true.  Bernie Sanders often states that the top 0.1% (1/10 of 1 %) owns more wealth than the bottom 90%. Well it is true.  We have more multi billionaires than any other place on earth.  How did it get that way?  Most of it happened after 1972 and the Chinese Exchanve.  You can credit Nixon and every Democrat and Republican administration since that time.  They were all in on the robbery of the American middle class worker.  

But the icing on the cake is that not only did they rob us of our jobs, steal our technology, threaten our military and naval superiority, and have plans to dominate the world—but they are continually sending us terrible deadly diseases as well.  

While the Democrats are pointing at the perfidy of poor Putin—the real bad guys are the ones in China....they are “le perile jaune “. 

Since the “China Exchange” (we get disease they get US jobs and technology secrets) is not likely to change much over the near future, we must reevaluate how we operate at present.   We in the USA should reconsider our pact with China —our illogical embrace of globalization —a system which hurts many and profits only the few.  As well it is now apparent that China can not be a reliable partner. It is hog tied with a massive population only recently elevated from a third world form of agriculture and ancient culinary practices which increase possibility  of animal to human virus exchanges which have generated our most deadly diseases—HIV. SARS. MERS, Wigan virus,  etc.  Our survival both economically  and militarily depends on  being more independent in many ways. Our present high dependency on manufactured goods (and pharmaceuticals) from China is a dangerous and precarious situation.

And yes lets get sensible about these massive cruise ships we permit to operate from our ports which are nothing more than floating Petru dishes for human disease.  Anyone who is foolhardy enough to board one is putting their health and life in jeopardy.  They are a health threat (an abomination)  to the ports and cities in which they dock to disgorge thousands of disease bearing tourists  Again greed and stupidity motivate the supporters of these monstrosities.

Furthermore, we need better screening and interdiction and quarantine procedures at our busy (casual) airports in an age of potential deadly biohazards. This is now (an for the foreseeable future) an era when rapidly evolving incurable pathogens are likely to spread worldwide.  Our trade practices and all too common air transportation (and passenger crowding) are ideal for opportunistic germs but make our nation highly vulnerable to the pandemics they generate.

Let’s not forget that Mexican-border wall either.  We can not abide with “open borders” in an age when undocumented, unevaluated migrants and potential vectors of deadly disease can simply cross our border and enter vulnerable population centers at will. Though at this writing there is only a modest threat there that situation is likely to change.  It is likely that illegal migrants desperate to enter the USA may carry incurable diseases like the novel Corona virus and other potential pathogens that have the potentially  infect millions of our citizens.  

  

  

NANCY’S TANTRUM WILL LIVE ON IN INFAMY

Like an angry and impotent housewife in her own kitchen tossing dirty dinner dishes into the sink after a domestic row, Nancy Pelosi, unable to control her hyper-rage, frustration and sense of utter impotence, stood behind President Trump last night as he finished his third State of the Union Speech, and methodically tore up her formal copy of the President’s formal speech piece by piece and tossed them on the dais.  

Over these last weeks, since the House impeachment,  when asked if “the House action was worth it?”  Ms Pelosi, her lips curled and canines bared  in anger responded: “the President  might be acquitted by the Senate,  but he will always be impeached”.  

With her actions last night, Nancy has now joined the President in infamy.  For after her childish  display of uncontrolled hissy fit rage at the head of the  House of the People,  she, as the first female Speaker will be forever tagged as unable to contain her emotions.  She bared her weakness and vitriol  to the world.

If anyone was unaware of how debilitating and dangerous the Trump-Derangement-Syndrome (TDS)  was for the nation’s leaders here in front of us was the typical way the disease is presented.  . The pathogen is rampant in Democrats ranks.  (And one GOP Senatoris apparently affected as well ).  This mental disorder clearly affects the victim’s  performance in the halls of Congress, and Senate. The etiology of TDS is derived from the victim’s embarrassing loss in 2016 and their continual and ineffective often deranged responses.  Nancy’s  tantrum has only exposed clearly how uncontrolled hate can debilitate.  Can the nation  expect normal behavior from these folks? .

Over the last three and a half years the Democrats, in collusion with the media, holdovers from the former Obama Administration, our government entrenched bureaucracy, the liberal establishment, and Ms. Pelosi and her team of white-cloaked Congressional harridans have all colluded, plotted and schemed to unseat this President.  (They forget or ignore the fact that this man has the mandate of a legitimate election)   But to their despair their plots and schemes have all failed miserably.  

The early sinister attempt at a “palace coup” and the scheme to enact the 25^th Amendment, the sinister traitorous acts of  rogue elements of the FBI and CIA, the Russian Collusion scam, the Ukraine conspiracy, and finally the hastily patched together “whistleblower” and   “Pelosi impeachment attempt” were all massive failures.  

To add to the Speaker Pelosi’s  rage, was her sense of failure, impotence and impending doom resulting from the historic and massive disaster of the Iowa Caucus debacle of the previous night in which the Iowa Democrat party could not successfully determine  the results of who among their frighteningly unimpressive slate of candidates actually won the first election challenge of the 2020  cycle.  

Apparently,  Nancy’s 78 year old mind is simply not up to the challenge of these continual and reoccurring failures and disappointments. Then to top it off she was forced to sit behind the Democrat’s “bete noire” and listen to the President tout a long list of his legitimate accomplishments made in spite of the Democrat attacks.  So she sat there with her eyes darting left and right, and  her face contorted with Commissioner Dreyfus-like (recalling inspector Cluseau) twitches and smiles. Her nemesis,  President Trump after all these attacks was still standing post impeachment, and now even more popular than ever.  Only an arm’s length away he pounded his drum loudly like the TV commercial’s ‘Energizer  Bunny”.   Nancy’s mind snapped, her legs stiffened reflexively bolting her upright, but unwilling to pull out her carefully and meticulously coifed hair,  she turned instead to the offending document in her hands, the formal copy of the President’s speech—which she ripped apart and tossed around the dais.  

One can almost (but not quite—considering all the pain, suffering and waste of time and tax dollars she has engendered in her pursuit of revenge and hate) feel a bit sorry for her.