When I worked I was some what thankful for stupid people because they represented job security. Now stupid people are a pestilence and annoyance. I really have no patience with stupid people and in the last few months I have noticed a lot more of them. Like the lady at the gas pump at Kroger's the other day who parked long ways across three parking spots. When another man said something too her she replied F...You and kept walking.
Just to show you that stupid people actions have unplanned consequences, another guy parked is pickup withing the confines of a legal parking spot directly behind her. there were only about 6-inches between the back of her car and the side of his truck. Another car was parked directly in front of her leaving only about a foot from the front of her car and the side of the other car. Lady Stupid wasn't going any where.
When she came back and found she wasn't going anywhere she was some kind of mad. I left and went across the street to the CVS while she was still cussing and ranting in the parking lot. When I cam out of CVS, I looked across the street and saw two police cars in the Kroger Parking lot.
I parked close enough to hear the police officer tell Lady Stupid that they couldn't do anything to help her. The officer told her that the cars in front of her were properly parked, she was the one improperly parked and would just have to wait it out. She continue to rant and rave until the officer basically told her to calm down or she may face a disorderly charge.
What made this even more entertaining was the drivers of the two properly parked cars had been sitting around the patio furniture in front of Kroger's watching the entire situation unfold. After making Lady Stupid wait a total of about 45-minutes the two driver decided they proved their point and returned to their vehicles and drove off without comment while Lady Stupid sat quietly in her car fuming.
Another thing that I am not a fan of is something called Lip Sync Challenge that police officers seem to be doing. First I think the entire Idea is stupid and Second, while some may find it cute, it find it a total waste of time, money and effort. Police officers should be out enforcing the law and not making YouTube and Facebook videos.
I was involved in law enforcement for over 40-years and never found this type of activity necessary or something that I would remotely want to be involved in. People say that it shows the human side of police My personal opinion is that this entire lip sync stuff is ridiculous and does nothing to impact the community view of police officers. Thugs will always be thugs whether police do lip sync challenges or not.
I am a huge baseball fan and we are basically half way through the season. Today while listening to the radio I heard one of the sports hosts on the radio ask the Commissioner of Baseball if anything was going to be done about the pace of play.
In a rambling answer all kinds of thing were being considered, including the implementation of a pitch clock, putting a limit of pitching changes, and limiting visits to the mound. These are all BS Suggestions.
First Major League Baseball has always had a pitch clock in the rule book. Simply put the rule says that the pitcher must deliver a pitch to the batter within 20-second of receiving the ball from the catcher. If he fails to do so, the umpire shall warn the pitcher. Future violations will result in a ball being awarded to the batter.
Now I know what you are saying, what if the batter is not in the box. Well that is covered too. The rule simply stated that the batter shall promptly take his position in the box when instructed to do so by the umpire. If the batter fails to do so the umpire shall warn the batter and award a strike for future violations.
Simply enforcing these two rules would speed up the pace of play significantly. I have umpired at various levels for over 30 years, and have enforced these rules only on a few occasions in high school. Enforcement is not popular and every time resulted in an argument and an ejection. But you only had to do it once and from then on pitchers pitched and batters stayed in the box and the game went quicker. But the fact of the matter is the NCAA and MLB does not want these already written rules enforced. You try and enforce these rules in the Major Leagues and the Players association would lose their mind and threaten to strike, but simply have pitchers throw a pitch in a timely manner and keeping batters in the box would significantly improve the pace of play.
Limiting Mound visits is being tried this year but basically the trial rule has not teeth. There is basically no penalty for exceeding the limit. Limiting pitching changes may have some merit. I was in Pittsburgh earlier this year and pitching change after pitching change caused the game to drag to almost 4 hours. One rule I heard discussed is to require the new pitcher to face three batters or record 3-out before another change could be made. Or if a pitcher other than the starting pitcher starts an inning he must face a minimum of 3 batter before an in inning change could be made.
I know what you are going to say is what about pitch hitters being used to negate the change. If a pitch hitter is announce, then he is officially in the game. If the pitcher is then changed and another pitcher is used is used that hitter will be required to play a minimum of three out in a defensive position. In the American League where you pitch hit for the Designated Hitter then the pitcher would be force to bat for the remainder of the game.
Another way is to force the umpire to call the strike zone that is spelled out in the rule book. The rule book strike zone is any pitch that crosses any portions of home plate between the batters letters and the top of the knees. In reality today, anything above the belt is called a ball and anything over the inside half of the play is also a ball. The plate is 17-inches wide, and if a batter crowds the inside part of the plate and a pitcher happens to pitch inside the batter acts like an idiot and wants to charge the mound. Umpires need to call strikes that are strikes.
I was told early on in my umpiring career, you get paid for outs and strikes. Every strike you call early is one less you will have to call late because after the first time through the batting order that batters will know that you are going to be calling the entire strike zone and will be swinging the bat.
Swinging the bat either puts you one strike closer to an out of it puts the ball in play, neither is a bad option and games will speed up.
These rule adjustments may or may not work. But there are ways to speed up the game without major adjustments to the rules.
Yea, I am getting grumpy in my old age but what can I say.
Finally, last year I visited the small town of Crawfordville, Georgia. I have uploaded the video of that visit so here it is.
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