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Baseball, Woke Signals, Blinded Eyes

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Del Tackett Del Tackett
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WOW! TERRIBLE. I’M ASHAMED OF THE GAME. QUOTE ME. I’M ASHAMED OF THE GAME.

HOUSTON ASTROS MANAGER DUSTY BAKER

I don’t follow Major League Baseball anymore. I suppose you can rack that up to my rebellion against all things Woke. MLB moved their All-Star game from Atlanta to Denver, screaming all kinds of silly stuff about Georgia being racist and it was the proverbial straw that broke my camel’s back. The truth there was that Georgia had enacted temporary lenient laws during the Covid-Scare and now they were basically undoing them. The President labelled them “Jim Crow”. The media and Hollywood types portrayed them as laws directed at denying people of color the right to vote, and so forth. It was just the same old pitting people against one another that is part of this evil worldview sweeping our nation in our times. 

So, MLB sent up their Woke Signals and moved the game from Atlanta, costing people there over a $100 million dollars (people who park cars, sell peanuts, wait tables, etc.) and took it to Denver where Colorado’s laws are more restrictive.

Go figure. 

But that is the nonsense of this worldview and therefore my departure from all things MLB.

However, I really like Dusty Baker. He is a great MLB manager. Winning division titles with five different teams proves that point. And further, he had now brought his Houston Astros to the World Series. 

Good for him, I thought.

Then I saw his statement: 

“Wow! Terrible! I’m ashamed of the game. Quote me. I’m ashamed of the game.”

Why did Dusty say this?

Evidently, the Houston Astros and the Philadelphia Phillies would not be fielding any black players in the World Series. When I heard this, I was quite surprised, for it seemed that there are many, many black players in professional sports. (It pains me deeply to even think in these terms—the shade of someone’s skin—but we are being forced into it constantly in our times. I hate it!) So, I thought, wow, what are the odds of this happening today? As confirmation, I found that this was the first time this had happened since 1950!

But, nevertheless, Dusty Baker declared he was “ashamed of the game”.

Now, saying you’re ashamed of someone is pretty serious. It means that someone has done something so wrong, so egregious, that you aren’t just disappointed in their actions, but you are now ashamed of them. And, if Dusty is “ashamed of the game” because of a so-perceived racial inequity, then, in his eyes, MLB and the teams must be racist. This is the apparent and obvious meaning behind his statement. It can’t be taken any other way, especially in the times in which we live.

So, I was thinking that the Astros and the Phillies were all just a bunch of white guys and Dusty was accusing MLB of racist hiring practices and attitudes.

This, therefore, moved me to tune in to the game last Wednesday evening to see it for myself.

However, when I turned on the TV and selected what I thought was the right channel, I thought I had made a mistake. On the mound for the Astros, was Cristian Javier. Wait a second, I thought (and I hate to think this way, but we are forced to do so) Javier is an obvious person of color, is he not? And, wait, catching for the Astros was Christian Vazquez. First base was Yuli Gurriel. Second base was Jose Altuve. Shortstop was Jeremy Pena. In the outfield was Aledmys Diaz and the designated hitter was Yordan Alvarez. Javier was relieved by Abreu and then Rafael Montero. The opposing pitcher for the Phillies was the obvious Hispanic Nola relieved by Jose Alvarado. When I tuned in, Javier was pitching to Ralmuto. He was followed by a white guy, Harper, but Castellanos was in the on-deck circle.

Whoa, I thought! There are a lot of people of color here! And I was hating the thought because I am absolutely sure, had I tuned in just to watch the game, skin shades would not have ever, ever entered my mind. But, alas, this evil worldview provokes us to think of these things now.

I ended up watching the rest of the game and enjoying it because the Astros pitchers, Javier, Abreu, Montero, and the anomaly Pressly, pitched a no-hitter. 

Pretty cool.

But the head-shaker here is that Dusty was “ashamed” of the game because there were no black players. And yet, of the 14 Astros that played that night, there were only 5 “white guys”. Nine of the players fielded that night for the Astros were what we unfortunately have to label as “players of color”. (Isn’t it sickening to say such things?) And, Dusty Baker is the manager of this very “colorful” team!

So, I was watching the game, shaking my head, trying to figure out the implications of Dusty’s statement. He was ashamed (though he said “the game”) of his team and the Phillies. He had to be, because it was these two teams that didn’t have any black players. So, I thought, what would he need to do to make his team “good”? Would he say that he was ashamed because the Astros had too many Hispanics on his team? 

Of course, he couldn’t say that. That would be, like, so totally un-Woke, for sure. 

So, would he say that the team would be “un-ashaming” if there weren’t these five white guys on the roster? Is he saying he would be “un-ashamed” if the team consisted of the current nine Hispanics, but then four blacks and maybe one token white guy? (Isn’t it insanity to speak this way?) Would he dare look his white third baseman and right fielder in the eye (who drove in three runs that night) and say I’m ashamed because you are on my team? Would he argue to the Houston management that they need to get rid of four or five white guys before he would feel good about being this team’s manager? Would he be proud of his team if it had nine Hispanics and five Asians? You know, no blacks, but also no whites? (Someone rescue me from having to even write this!)

No, I doubt he would think or say any of these things. And since the Astros won the Series, I’m sure he’s proud of his team.

But the point here is the silliness and nonsensical nature of what Wokeness brings to our culture. And it brings to us, the Remnant, a good lesson. We must not get pulled into this crazy Malevolent Compassion, which is the basis of “Social Justice Think” and say stupid, nonsensical things. The Scripture gives us plenty of guidance about guarding our mouth. 

When we speak, dear Remnant, let it be words of wisdom and prudence, truth and grace. Let us not be conformed to the pattern of this world. Let us be, instead, transformed by the renewing of our minds—a renewing which comes from the truth of God.

 

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