[Hankphenom]

My 70+ year-old friends and I talk often about how happy we are to have lived when we did, for the many pleasures and experiences we took for granted for most of our lives that now seem to be on the verge of extinction, baseball as we knew it among them, but also great daily newspapers; wonderful music and movies; terrific neighborhood bars and mom-and-pop restaurants; affordable housing and cars; temperate climate, etc.. Of course I'd rather be young right now, but without sounding like a grumpy old man--which I don't feel like in the least--sometime in the next few years doesn't seem like a bad time to be taking leave of this place after a long and happy life. I hope the young folks are finding and creating as much fun and entertainment to fill up their days as we did. To bring it back to baseball, reading the list of changes mandated by the Poobahs in their negligible wisdom, it's amazing that virtually all of them strike me as actually detrimental to the game and the experience of it. I can't imagine what they are thinking in practically every one of these meddlesome and needless changes. For starters, all I want mandated is for the batters to stay in the box, the pitchers stay on the mound, and the runners stay on the bases, all of them ready for the next pitch. Having said all this, I am absolutely thrilled to have my Nationals to watch every day for the next six months or so. "Play Ball!", I am so happy to be able to say.