While crumpling up newspaper to start a fire in my woodstove this morning, my eye fell upon a headline: "Why baseball is now so white" by C.W. Nevius, one of my favorite writers. The article was in the front section of the paper, not the sports section, which I totally avoid.
I asked myself: "If the article is about a social issue, could I read it without falling off the wagon?"
On this project, there is no judge to give me guidedance. But my wonderful wife, sensing my perplexity, offered to read the article and possibly clear it. While she read, I was reminded of the Orthodox Jewish tradition of skirting the prohibition of working on the Sabbath. For example, while the Bible has been interpreted as forbidding turning on the lights during the Sabbath, a non-Jew can be hired to do that chore.
Is such a work-around Kosher--given that the non-Jew would be violating God's rule about honoring the day of rest? Alas, answering that question falls outside the scope of this entry. In the present situation, my wife didn't violate any rule because my flight from spectator sports involves only me. I wasn't corrupting her, just using her.
My wife's synopsis of the article explained that young white players with parental backing attend expensive training camps to devleop baseball skills, thus giving them an advantage over poor players, many of them people of color. Clearly, Nevius's piece was about justice, not sports. His words would not stimulate my desire to watch sports, but rather make me angry about the un-level playing field that we provide young people in this country.
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