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Baseball and Westerns are too sacred to tamper with Date published: 5/25/2003
IN MY WORLD, there are two things that you don't mess around with--Western movies and baseball, not necessarily in that order. I am still of the opinion that all Westerns should have been made (they don't make them anymore) in black and white--with the possible exception of John Wayne movies. Historians will tell you that there was no color in the Old West (except where John Wayne walked) and there are no color photographs from that period to prove it. Then there is all that business about trying to make Western comedies. Humor in the Old West was as sparse as schoolmarms in a saloon, and producers who filmed those silly comedy Westerns should have been run out of town like mangy old suck-egg dogs. The Old West was serious stuff and humor was limited to sidekicks like Gabby Hayes and Pat Buttram. Oh, Hopalong Cassidy, Gene Autry and Roy Rogers may have occasionally laughed, but they did so at the end of the movie after the bad guys had been hauled off to the hoosegow and good had triumphed over evil. A snicker just before kissing your horse and riding off into the sunset was acceptable. Anything more was sacrilegious. Now that I have made it clear where I stand on Westerns, let's get on to baseball. As far as I'm concerned there is only one major league that remains in existence--the National League. These guys play real baseball where the pitcher hits and strategy is involved. The American League with its designated-hitter rule is just there to give the National League somebody to play in the World Series. Like Western movies, baseball is serious stuff, nothing to be fiddled with. It achieved perfection in the 1950s and any changes made after that decade have only aided in the game's deterioration. If I don't like the designated- hitter rule, it should be evident how I feel about inter-league play. American is American and National is National and never the twain shall meet except in the World Series or the All-Star game.
1. Be respectful. No personal attacks.
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