When I started this site I told you guys I’d always be honest with you. I primarily write about baseball, yes, but over the last few years, as human civilization has faced crisis after crisis, and with the sport in the midst of a lockout, I’m finding it difficult at times to care about it. I know (hope?) this will change as soon as regular-season games begin, but right now I feel completely out of step with my colleagues covering the game.
Yesterday my Twitter timeline was a dystopian mish-mash of photos of terrified Ukrainian mothers hiding their babies to protect them from Russian missiles interspersed with people arguing about Max Scherzer’s Porsche. I suspect that had Twitter been around in the fall of 1939 when Hitler invaded Poland it would have looked a lot like it does now, with half the users screaming about war atrocities and the other half forging ahead with normal life as best as they could—not because they’re heartless but because getting on with things is simply what’s required.
I want MLB players to win their battle for fair pay from the owners, I do, but this is not the war that’s keeping me up at night.
I don’t mean this as a criticism of my colleagues who are covering every nanosecond of the MLB lockout. We need these journalists to distill the news and explain to the rest of us what’s going on, especially when we’re distracted by other stories. It’s vital, important work that helps our understanding of where the national pastime stands now and where it’s headed.
But I still get mad when I see a baseball tweet. Then I get mad at myself for being mad. The world never stops for those who are grieving, because it can’t. The pandemic reminded us that no matter how terrified or hopeless or isolated we feel, at a minimum we still have to get up in the morning and pour the coffee, feed the kids and return work emails because it’s the only way we can survive. And we can’t fight psychopaths like Vladimir Putin if we’re dead.
I’m also realizing more and more that it’s really hard for me to walk and chew gum at the same time. Being an empath is wonderful for making friends. But it’s paralyzing during pandemics, insurrections and war (this is why people much braver than me are on the front lines of all these battles).
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I wanted to write this post to say that if you love baseball but you’re finding it really hard to care about it right now, that’s ok. It doesn’t make you any better or worse than the people who are still able to spend their mornings arguing over whether the Yankees should sign Freddie Freeman or Carlos Correa. We all cope with chaos and horror in different ways. We’re all doing our best to get through each day.
As sports fans we’re fixated on world records and other markers to assure us that what we’re witnessing is without precedent. It makes us feel special. But as it turns out, living through history is vastly overrated. In the last 24 months, Americans have endured a pandemic and an insurrection on the U.S. Capitol. We are now grappling with the very real possibility that in his unhinged and desperate decline, Putin will push us into World War III. For all the pearl clutching about Iran or North Korea developing nukes and all the measures we have taken to prevent that from happening, surprise! What we were afraid of is here. And a sociopath with the means to end civilization with the push of a button has threatened to do just that if he doesn’t get what he wants.
I wasn’t even going to write this post because I’m not an expert in geopolitics. Rather than weigh in on the ins and outs of foreign policy that I don’t understand, however, it’s serving me best right now to shut up about that part and read the work of those who are on the ground and much smarter.
If you’re feeling as helpless as I am, though, there are still some things you can do. Together Rising Is a tremendous non-profit that’s already in Ukraine offering food, cash and medical care to refugees. They are urgently asking for donations. You can also go to Twitter and follow and amplify the work of journalists on the front lines, including Anton Troionovski, Christopher Miller, Clarissa Ward, Illia Ponomarenko and many more who have pointed out that Russian people do not want this:
My heart is with the people of Ukraine. Please be good to yourselves this weekend.
Thanks for this, Molly. I feel it all.
Good post. I agree it's very hard to focus on something right now that basically boils down to very talented people making a lot of money (and deservingly so) negotiating with people who own teams and have more money that 99.999% of people in the world. While I love baseball more than anything, what I am really tired of it people tweeting how their life sucks because there is a chance we will miss some baseball games. Yeah, it's disappointing, but grow up. It's not a tragedy. There are real tragedies going on right now, and crying about how sad and broken you are that there will likely be less than 162 baseball games this year makes you look like a 6 year old. Just my two cents.