Thread by @SteveEnglishbey

Last bit of thought for tonight [I think you guys should know by now, I maintain musician's hours wherein I read and write until the wee hrs.--don't call me before noon!!]

Some may protest as regards my non -hitting/pitching posts. Fair enough I say.

But try to consider my perspective. I suspect that many who come to this account are much younger than I am. I'm certainly appreciative that some relatively young guys are listening to some relatively older guys about hitting/throwing.

But try to understand that being around a while potentially yields a certain insight into the larger culture in which sports are within.

In this regard, I am reminded of the late and great political commentator Charles Krauthammer's comments about writing a book bereft of politics.

He was a great student of baseball, and he had many interests well beyond politics. But. As he thought about writing his next book, the more he came to realize that he could not leave politics out of the equation.

Why? Well because he came to realize that had Hitler conquered Europe, the entire culture of the west---which includes of course, western arts and sports, almost certainly would not exist as we know them today.

Now, I hasten to say that I do not think for a moment that I have the intellectual gravitas that he had!

Not at all. Nonetheless, I am a guy who has spent considerable time engaged in trying to understand how the larger political culture---in which sports is subsumed--has developed over the last 40 or so yrs.

I have always been interested in both the microcosm [sports/ "how the body works" etc.] and the macrocosm [the larger socio-political culture]. Simply put, this is how my mind and interests tend to operate.

And as such, and I dare say, somewhat like Charles Krauthammer, I, from time to time, cannot help but find patterns of overlap between the two realms.

One ex. of the intersection of the two realms in a real sense: Is there a substantive difference in how to teach those who have grown up with smart phones vs. those of yesteryear who did not?

Or, at a much more macro level: What is the fate of future American athletes who are operating within the framework of Chinese hegemony and all that that might entail?

Maybe some here are not much interested in these kinds of thoughts, but......I AM!

Said another way: I have been around long enough, and I interested enough to realize that the cultural/political context we find ourselves in, IS, TRULY, remarkable.

Whether most here really understand this is highly doubtful. I say this without condescension or malice. Instead, I would simply assert here that it is simply is a matter of having a sufficient lived experience so as to have developed a more in depth historical perspective

Bottom line: I feel a certain obligation to try to weave a kind of perspective that tries to illuminate both the micro [how the body works in throwing/swinging] ,AND the macro [how the socio-political] works.

Especially in the context as to how the two may, potentially, intersect. In both relatively specific and more general ways.

I would only add here that Jason Whitlock is a guy I have great respect for and who is somewhat of a model in that he is most certainly a guy who ties the larger culture to the sports culture.

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