Mike Barnhill
Ashland
Dear Editor:
The Jan. 26 sports edition of the News Tribune noted a futuristic change in baseball. The system used to call balls and strikes electronically has been used in the Atlantic League and Arizona Fall League. It’s now coming to the majors. For the ones who were alarmed after reading that sentence, you can breathe easy for at least another year.
Who could have possibly foreseen this coming change to the basics of baseball? There are differences of opinion however.
“I personally like the human error part of the game of baseball,” St. Louis Cardinal pitcher John Grant told the News Tribune prior to the Cardinals Caravan on Jan. 17 at the Missouri Farm Bureau. “I think having the empires back there, it’s just a part of the game and it has been for a long time, so I would like to see that stay the same.”
Along this same line of thinking to change in rules to a major sport, imagine this happening sometime into the future with major political debates. The debating group would all be wearing a sensor device measuring changes in various blood pressure, voice tone, etc. A monitor would analyze these measurements and give a corresponding explanation to their spoken words. An electronic sign would give (4) guidelines to the meaning the debater’s words. They would be (1) Lie (2) Fact (3) Exaggeration (4) Personal Opinion. Imagine the end of “fake news” often repeated of what a politician actually said. Of course it would never end the debate over impromptu sentences often misunderstood or misinterpreted.
As good as this idea may sound, I’m sure there would be many who prefer to see things stay the same. Just like in baseball where you have the benefit of the doubt with human error acceptable. Truth is seldom the most important feature in a politician if he/she is just doing the things you like. Lying, exaggeration and personal opinions are more than acceptable. I suppose the telling of half truths and gossip in politics will be like ridding us of measles. We can try to keep it to a minimum, but never totally capable of conquering it.