4/24/01
Softball: Sentiment and Science
Dear People,
Congratz to all on last week’s briefly tense yet generally delightful 29-22 exemplification of our beloved sport’s eclectic allure. Indeed, the participation of an entire mother-father-daughter family was a first in the four year history of our ever transmogrifying community, and in many ways, their very presence was a personal reminder that it’s not about victory or defeat, but about the compelling aerobic stew of simple human interaction. Love. Play. Friendship. Yes, life is with people, and these are the things that matter. Of course, my own team kicked some serious ass, and in the eyes of the Lord, that’s probably all that counts.
And speaking of the vision of deities, I just happen to be reading Monday’s Chronicle when I stumbled upon an enticing headline on Page A6 that simply reads "Scientists install living eel brain in small robot." As you can imagine, I was quickly intrigued by the thought of my favorite saltwater fishie suddenly serving as the cognitive foundation for a whole new set of Star-Trek characters.
I was also curious if such a development would eventually impact my own life, especially after I read that the eelmeister’s "immature brain" was removed, kept alive in a special solution, and then later "attached to the hockey-puck-sized robot by wires….so [that] it can receive light signals from the device’s electronic eyes and send commands to move the machine’s wheels." Let’s not be coy; This piscine-cyborg-freak will clearly have profound implications for us as a softball-playing people, and with all due candor, I don’t think we should pretend otherwise.
What’s so ironic is that just last week I found myself at the batter’s box reflecting on why I was apparently doomed to resume a lackluster streak of ground-outs and uninspired singles. Oh sure, I’m probably not "strong" enough to blast the 500-foot hits that Broh and Home-run Dave take for granted, but I do remember wondering if there were some way for me to connect bat to ball with slightly more Euclidean precision. And it was at that moment that I suddenly realized that while my own tiny little brain was perhaps not ideal for the task at hand, I could still dramatically improve my batting average if I could just somehow exploit the light-processing cranial matter of a recently sacrificed eel fetus.
In any case, it’s unlikely that the revelations in this week’s article are going to change things overnight. Yet we need to be cognizant of the potential for good and mischief that these new biotechnologies will ultimately bring to our beloved pastime, lest one team or another or even the eel-thing itself eventually claim some sort of recreational injustice. Of course, I believe we’re mature enough to handle this, and therefore, there will be a game at Codornices this Sunday at 5:00, IF I get enough commits by this Friday morning….Ray
4/27/01
Softball: Laconique
Codornices this Sunday at 5:00/ A few slots left/$2 for the field…Ray
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