Three Batter Rule

This episode was recorded on Bob Dylan’s birthday. It’s difficult to call him the favorite son of Hibbing, Minnesota, when you consider that it’s also the hometown of Chi Chi Larue, Robert Mondavi, and Kevin McHale, but we admire his contribution to the American tapestry nonetheless.

The public’s interest in seeing sports return cleaves pretty cleanly along partisan lines, as does so much else in our life. Is an objective understanding of anything possible these days? As we move deeper into the next normal, the fact that we are in fact at least two Americans on top of each other, each jockeying to be regarded as the real America.

The beautiful thing about America’s game is the way that it keep reforming itself around what America is -- and who Americans are. African-Americans a generation ago, Latinx players today, Americans always, one and all. The sport has always been part of the “next normal” in this country and could be again.

If South Korean baseball games rely on the noise of fake crowds, is the excitement real? Do the Yankees have real fans? Is Anthony Fauci one? Who gets to (or has to) go to work at crowded places like ballgames, college campuses, and prisons? Coronavirus has done a lot to us. What has it done for us? These and other questions will go asked, and some answered, by David, Tom, and Tom on this week's episode.

A plan to eliminate dozens of teams from the minor league system is a troubling development for many American communities already reeling from the coronavirus pandemic, among other ailments. Who is really calling the shots around here? 

This week, we mourn the passage of John Prine and are beginning to reckon with how a great many things are changing all around us, both on the baseball diamond and in the arena of politics. As the coronavirus crisis enters its second month, it's clear that "normal" isn't something we'll get back to -- it's something we'll have to create. Our batters discuss the response so far, and what it means for what's next.

The Tennessee General Assembly looks deep into the future when crafting their own ethics rules while Vince Scully looks into our national past to rally us to collective purpose. The Nashville Symphony is playing for free right now and, if we're lucky, we just might be playing baseball in December.

Can you have a ballgame with no fans in the stands? What about a city council meeting with no members of the public? In this episode, the batters navigate a strange new landscape where everyone is connected, nobody is together, and American institutions like democracy and baseball feel quaint at best. Tom L.'s internet connection is a bit fuzzy throughout, but his points about community and what happens to it when we stay apart too long, featuring a perfectly legal excerpt from "Field of Dreams," couldn't be sharper.

Mitt Romney is a member of the #YangGang now. David and Tom G. look at how Coronavirus may fundamentally reshape public policy in America while Tom L. recalls the weird oft-overlooked connection between Babe Ruth, Tilly Walker, and the Spanish Flu.  

David is in Surprise while many of the Democratic nominees for President were in for a surprise of their own last week. Pete, Amy, Beto, and Kamala endorse Joe as talk to turns to the coming Veepstakes. Tom G. believes we may have reached the end of history when it comes to ballpark food innovations and Tim Tebow, to the surprise of everyone (including him) hits a homerun.