The end of baseball season rapidly approaches. So I’m sad, melancholy. Many people have other things to distract themselves with in a favorable way like the NFL, college football,hockey, eventually the NBA, et and cetera. I have futbol, which is great fun, but it’s not exactly the same. There are big problems with baseball, professionally and as a game. But it’s still far superior to most of life. If the aging body was fit enough I could spend time in the great outdoors but the weather will soon be making that a real challenge anyway.

The full on embrace both of the sport by gambling interests and of gambling interests by the sport is troubling. Yeah, the bet industry has been solidly involved in the Andy Capp world of soccer for decades but there is no evidence that it has improved the game whilst enabling huge profits and wages in various non productive sectors of the economy. Fan Duel is now not just a sponsor but also, tragically, a sports television network that provides coverage of games for several MLB teams. Excuse me while I puke. I’m thinking of the Black Sox, a story that’s gone out of style, and also of the major league pitcher whose life was threatened by an embittered bettor who lost money due to a poor performance on the mound. Fan Duel advertising brags about how placing bets makes the game more interesting. To Hell with the competition, we’re here for the dough.

That, of course, leads one to thinking about the lack of parity in MLB due to the Grand Canyon sized gap between the richest teams (Dodgers, Yankees, Mets) and the lower level rich teams. The Brewers versus the Dodgers was like David of Cheese versus Goliath of Bitcoin. And Milwaukee was a very, very good team. So between dodgy scams like gambling and lack of competition similar to Microsoft,Google and Apple, it’s become too much like the real world. Still, the exploits of Cal Raleigh, Julio Rodriguez, Shane Bieber and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. are inspiring and thrilling as opposed to whatever Pete Hegseth or Kristi Noem do next. However, when dweebs like the Manfred man begin calling what they do a “product” it’s time to make some changes. If television executives and tone deaf franchise owners continue to extract all of the fun from the game, people will eventually find other sources of fun. Unless gambling becomes the cheap,easy replacement for fun. Melancholy Inc.