A "No Win" Situation

Last night's All Star game was the first of what is likely to be many disappointing outcomes to the 2002 season. Bud Selig, the owner of the Milwaukee Brewers and the Baseball Commissioner, was a master of irony when he said, "I was in a no win situation." Whether there was nothing else he could do, given that the two managers had used all their bench players and used up all their pitchers, is a matter of some debate. He is clearly right that there was nothing else that he could do that fell within the scope of ordinary solutions, which were apparently the only one's he dared consider. As comissioner, he had the power to amend the rules of the game and allow the re-entry of the players into the game which would, of course, have been a dramatic departure from tradition for which he would have been roundly criticized, but he didn't. Curt Schilling proposed having a homer derby as a "tie breaker," which would have been starkly different than anything ever done in baseball (and of course roundly criticized) but it would have "solved" the problem in an very creative way. But the comish could not allow himself to be that creative and thus he fell victim to the assumption there was nothing else he could do. When people can't think creatively in the heat of the moment and don't plan creatively before the event, they are backed into the corner and suffer from "no win" situations. This lack of creativity and planning are what constitute the greatest threat to this season's integrity, what forebodes the probability of a strike, what foreshadows a disappointing end to a promising first half of the baseball season. The All Star game ain't what it used to be, and with the leadership currently in place in baseball, it may never be again.
- posted by Perry @ 6:42 AM