I
went to the barber yesterday, very nice guy who happens to be from
Albania. He had the TV on to the
European Championship in soccer, which means as much to me as the All-Star Game
probably does to him. As ever, words of
wisdom were dispensed from behind the chair.
“You
know why soccer is so popular?” he asked, scissors in hand. “Because it’s cheap.” On hearing that it cost $300 for a softball
bat, he may have wanted to jack up the cost of my hair cut. Luck for me, it’s not a clip joint.
How
odd, and how sad. Once upon a time,
baseball or a variant like stickball was so affordable that immigrants and the
working class flocked to it. Watch the
old movies for scenes of kids in the street hitting away or find the picture of
Willie Mays playing stickball, not too far from the Polo Grounds, I’m
sure. Now, it’s travel ball and private
lessons, and what kid with parents from afar wants to play that game with a
bat, if they could afford a bat, to say nothing of a glove that will set the
family budget back $150? I bet you can
get a good soccer ball for the cost of a haircut, with enough left over for
socks. Yes, very sad.
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