Catcher of the Fly

Baseball, if you’ll recall, was a game invented to give schoolchildren something to do in the long summer months, soldiers something to do in the long days between maneuvers, and George Will something to write about besides economic reform in Tajikistan. Recently, however, the relationship between the sport and its spectators has grown more and more dysfunctional. And this past season, though teams have come up with increasingly imaginative ways to keep the fans in the stands (“The ’95 Mets: No Pending Indictments!”), millions simply decided to give the whole nasty business a pass. ™ Grim tidings at the turnstiles, of course, do not necessarily translate into equally gloomy news on the field, and at stadiums around the country, excellent—if unwitnessed —baseball continues to be played. Batters are still hitting balls into adjacent time zones, pitchers are still throwing fastballs at speeds great enough to make their mass increase, and ...