We promise sports commentary on this blog and don’t deliver often enough. There are many reasons for that.
Although I spent most of 35 years working for newspapers writing about sports, I became severely turned off by the path of sports in general and the athletes in particular.
These days, I watch an occasional Major League Baseball game, but get more interested at playoff time.
Similarly, I routinely waste little to no time viewing regular season NHL, NBA, NFL, college basketball or college football play.
My DISH satellite television package a while back dropped the Pittsburgh sports provider channel due to high cost, which I didn’t mind. It was more a mercy killing, denying the transmission of endless hours of pathetic Pirates baseball, along with the non-stop whining of Penguins announcers reflecting the franchise’s mindset that it never gets a fair shake.
But sometimes events catch my eye. One such ridiculous moment occurred last night, when a Pirates player dropped his cell phone while sliding into third base, providing a microcosm moment to illustrate what ails sports and society. Replays have been everywhere.
In this way, Rodolfo Castro turned yet another Pirates loss into a lasting memory.
How absurd that a player would feel the need to have a cell phone tucked into his uniform pants during a game.
Baseball purists have rushed to cable television outlets to express outrage. They were just wasting their time.
Castro merely reflects our society, in which mostly everyone from school students to dinner partners cannot separate from their cell phones long enough to focus on those present. These digital zombies sleepwalk through life in a permanent state of divided attention.
You might think a player freshly called up to the Major Leagues could break the addiction, at least while running the bases. And you would be wrong.
Replays of the farce show a bemused umpire and an exasperated looking third base coach, who was charged with taking possession of the phone while play continued.
Big league baseball is a bit touchy about electronic devices on the playing field, what with all the charges and countercharges of sign stealing.
No doubt Castro is innocent on that front and was merely looking to send or accept some texts, or take a selfie with which to do some boasting on social media.
Pirates manager Derek Shelton, the latest captain of this baseball Titanic, handled the matter with apologetic tripe typical of those in positions of sporting authority – we use the authority part loosely.
Said Shelton: “This was just a kid who made a mistake.”
Excuse me! Castro is 23. He’s an adult by any legal definition. Immature, yes. Kid, no.
It is fitting that Castro would commit this faux pas while playing for the Pirates, an organization that consistently is short on talent, but compounds that inherent competitive problem by playing sloppy fundamental baseball.
There are actual chronological kids playing baseball on television these days, as youths compete to advance to the finals of the Little League World Series.
Let me know the next time a cell phone falls out of the pants of one of those players during play.
Sam Ross Jr's site 