EDITORIALS

Tuesday night lights

Don’t save us a seat-we’ll stand

FOR THOSE of you who haven’t been through Vilonia or Mayflower in the past week . . . thank you. After about five minutes in Faulkner County last Monday morning, we knew we were in the way. And if we may be pardoned an inelegant phrase left over from our days in the service, we immediately un-assed the Area of Operations.

We were embarrassed when the governor of Arkansas went on television that very afternoon and told the usual rubber-neckers that they weren’t helping matters. We didn’t want to be one of them. And we’re afraid we were, however briefly. No excuse, sir, and it won’t happen again.

After the towns were made safe for volunteers, those with more on their minds than sight-seeing showed up. As they always seem to do after tornadoes.Or after any other disaster-whether natural, man-made or in-between. The papers were full of sidebars offering ways you could help. Donation centers were set up at schools, churches and even bars. The radio stations broadcast “on location,” drumming up support. But is there anything more the rest of us can do? That is, the rest of us who don’t have chainsaws, four-wheel drive vehicles or the ability to handle either?

Why yes, there is. The rest of us can go to a ball game.

Word started spreading late last week about the game on tap for tomorrow evening at Dickey-Stephens in North Little Rock, that little bandbox of a ballpark beside the river.

That is tomorrow as in Tuesday, as in May 6th, 2014, and the gates are to open at 4:30 p.m., with the first pitch an hour later. See you there.

Who’s playing? The Eagles. Yes, both Mayflower High and Vilonia High have the same mascot: the eagle. And the varsity baseball teams of both schools are to play tomorrow evening-birds against birds.

Admission is free. But there’s a catch. A great catch. They’ll be taking up donations at the park, and all of them, not to mention concession sales, are to go directly to those who lost their homes-or more-when the tornadoes swept through Central Arkansas last week.

The game is supposed to be seven innings only-an abbreviated game. But in baseball, what’s abbreviated? In baseball, time has no minute or hour hands; it’s measured only in innings. And those can go on indefinitely in a tied game. This game could go on till midnight, and wouldn’t that be great! Walk, walk, walk, replace a pitcher, walk, hit, double-play, walk, walk, walk, balk, confer on the mound, step into the batter’s box, then out . . .

There is no play clock in baseball, which may be why it’s the loveliest of American sports, a refuge from the tyranny of the ordinary clocks that dominate our workday lives. And after the game is played-till eternity if necessary-we can all settle back to a discussion of the infield-fly rule, which is only a little more complicated than Einstein’s Theory of Relativity and just as arcane. We’d explain it right now if this column had the time and space, which turn out to be the things in the Einsteinian universe almost as beautiful and expansive as the game of baseball.

TO RETURN to Central Mundane Time, that’s tomorrow at 4:30 p.m. As if anybody needed an excuse to go see/enjoy/feel a baseball game. Throw in peanuts and crackerjacks, and hot dogs with the required ketchup (all right, mustard, if you insist), and you’ve got the perfect evening. Especially since the weatherpersons say there’s a good chance of nothing but blue skies shining above, nothing but blue skies, from now on-at least on game day.

A handful of employees from local banks are to tally all the donations, so there’ll be no funny stuff. This, as you know, is an imperfect world. (Did we really see in the news that two men were arrested on looting charges last week? Some people . . . .)

But which team to root for? Easy. The team in the field. That’s what we do. And, oh yes, put another five-spot in the kitty for every double-play. It’s needed.

No need to save us a seat. We’ll stand along the first-base side in the open area of Dickey-Stephens, just above the seats. The better to catch a foul ball.

Editorial, Pages 12 on 05/05/2014

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