I'm a sports nut. Nut. I love college sports mostly but I'll deal with pro baseball. College basketball is great, but I want to focus primarily on baseball at the moment.
Picture this: It's the top of the 7th inning and while it's been a tight game the whole time, the visiting team just went up scored 8 straight runs. You kept the same pitcher but switched catchers. I don't think that will work, but ok. There are two runners on and the batter can either score 1, 2 or possibly none.
So the options are giving up 10 straight runs, 9 straight runs, or 8. Either way, how does stopping one or two runs give you momentum?
We're in the 7th inning of this primary and Obama is up. He just scored 8 runs and may score 1 or 2 more tonight (after all of the negative ads in WI, it's not looking great). Team Clinton 2.0 has just three more innings to try and pull it out. At this point, they can't win it in 9 - it MUST go to extra innings for them. The pitcher is throwing bad pitches and the team's morale is low; but, both teams have been and will continue to play hard.
But it comes down to this. How, after going down 8, 9 or 10 runs do you make a comeback and win? Do you ask for a rule change and suggest that runs from practice count? Do you game the refs and hope they are favorable to your side? Sure, that'll help for a run here or there, but it won't overcome 8-10 runs, will it? Do you say that you should win because you're the home team, because Team Clinton 1.0 won the World Series so Team Clinton 2.0 would too?
Or do you play ball and hope you can catch the grounders, popouts AND hit the big hits necessary to win? When the other team scores on a sacrifice, do you call it, "Not a real run?" If they hit and run based on a strategy of getting out the caucus - I mean getting out the runs, do you say it's not legitimate? Or, do you simply play the game?
In little league, we had to shake hands or give the other team five at the end of the game - win or loss. They can't throw mud, accuse the other team of not really winning or anything else. It's time for Team Clinton 2.0 to play with the same sportsmanship as little leaguers.
And it's time for the fans in the stands to make calls and talk to friends and get out on the field ourselves.