There's baseball and then there's waiting

More accurately, for this blog's readers,  because there's baseball, there's waiting.

Sad to say, my kids' baseball days are finally over for this summer. The Fox Point East Side All Stars team lost last night to Johnston 16-0. They were most definitely outmatched but they played hard and with heart. I'm grateful to have my evenings back for a bit (until Fall Ball in September!) but will miss watching them play.

Between our three kids playing this year, plus playoff games, All Star games and now this summer tournament, we estimate we've been to around 100 baseball games this spring and summer. As I've written before, I get wrapped up in not only the games but also the guys' emotional states heading into the games. Ahead of the big game last night, I could hardly focus on work during the day and as it's been clear from the lack of posts here, I haven't been thinking about much else, either. Yes, it is summer and Providence education news is slow, but it's also that my head hasn't been in this game. It's been in the game on the field.

Serendipitously, as I was thinking about how to get this blog's engine to turn over, I came upon Moneyball, Superman, Angry Royals Fans and Education Reform? from School Finance 101 which compares inequity within Major League Baseball to school finance inequity. Apparently, I am not the only one in the headspace that connects baseball and education.

Bottom line, in education and baseball, money matters. We've been wildly distracted from dealing with the implications of economic inequity both within education and more generally. And, course, the critical difference is that baseball is a game and education - and the lives it impacts - isn't. We cannot afford, nor can we tolerate, Yankees and also-rans among our children, and we can't pretend that paying for kids' basic needs, including education, doesn't matter or can somehow be compensated for by "no excuses." I didn't like hearing the boos for Cano either, but I think that School Finance 101's Bruce Baker has a point that the KC fans weren't simply ungracious.

(Who said "there's baseball and then there's waiting?" to describe how we feel about the time after the World Series ends and spring training starts? Wish I could remember - I love that idea.)