I went to my son’s baseball game today. He had an amazing game, if I do say so myself. And as his father I am definitely claiming bragging rights, at least for the foreseeable future!
In the third inning he came up with bases loaded and hit a double to right-center field. 3 runs scored. In the fifth inning he came up with the bases loaded again. This time he hit a grand slam home run over the center field fence. He also had a single and drove in a total of 7 runs in the game.
My son, who is now 16, has played organized baseball pretty much continually since he was 7. He has played in both spring and fall city leagues as well as having spent several years in travel-ball which is a year-round commitment. Since the age of 9 he has trained privately with a former professional baseball player, often twice a week. His training has included lessons in both pitching and hitting. He has also spent countless hours in weight rooms, batting cages and even more hours in the back yard either hitting off a tee, throwing into a net or playing catch with me. In short he has worked very hard to refine and multiply his talents and today was no fluke, it was the fruit of his labor.
On my son’s high school team is a another young man (my son’s best friend) who never played baseball until the 9th grade. He tries very hard but it’s a struggle for him to keep up because he does not have the same experience that many other player have. I don’t know what his hobbies and interests were before high school but it is safe to say he was doing something else during the many hours my son was playing and training.
Now if Citizen Obama were allowed to apply his wealth redistribution tax plan to baseball, things might have gone like this today: After my son’s third at-bat a time-out would have been called. The umpire would announce that it wasn’t fair for my son to have 7 RBI while some of the other players (like my son’s friend) had none. The Obama Rule would then be invoked – Anyone driving in more than 3 runs in a game shall be forced by the umpire to share the extra RBIs with players having none, to be distributed at the discretion of the umpire to players on both teams. This rule would guarantee a more equitable distribution of runs scored and helps all players to have more RBIs. Well.. all but my son that is – the one who worked very hard and who sacrificed so much for so long to be the very best he could.
Can you imagine a baseball game where the goal of each game was a tie score and for all players to have the same stats? Neither can I.
Can you imagine the United States as a place where governmental limitations are imposed on hard work and sacrifice? Where citizens are subjected to punitive taxation if they work “too” hard, earn “too” much and become “too” successful? Neither can I.
But Obama can…
