I get to spend a lot of time at sports events, being the father of 5 athletes. So last year I found myself at a baseball game with my 10 year old son. His coaches have the team warm up about one hour prior to the game. So while I was detachedly watching our team warm up, I noticed the other team was warming up as well. I began to "eye the competition". They looked okay, but not nearly as good as our team. It looked like a good day for a win. I noticed the coach, Mr O'Dell. I knew him, he has been a good coach, and he is on the baseball league board. We had talked a few times about the baseball league. He was a really likable guy. He is pationate about youth baseball. Most of the parents liked him and his team seemed to respond well to his coaching. The more I watched, I noticed that he had a few good players, but a lot of rookies. I was beginning to think that we would not have much trouble winning this game. I just hoped it would not be a blow out. However, I had heard that this team had 12 wins and no losses. They sure did not look that good.

My phone rang, disturbing my musing. I was on call. As I answered my cell phone, I walked away forgetting about the teams that were warming up. The call from my answereing service was not a very intense medical need, but seemed to take forever to get sorted out. It was the kind of free care that I provided every day. By the time I finished the phone call the game had started. I wandered over the the stands. Our team was up to bat, in the first inning. I noticed that there was only one umpire. Usually there was two; one in the field and one behind the plate. Today, there was just one behind the plate. I had missed our first batter. He had struck out already. Our second batter was in trouble. The pitch was way wide, but the umpire called it a strike. Not a good call ... but as I always teach my kids, nobody is perfect. You will get a few bad calls. Some of the parents on my side started to grumble. Our next batter came up. Three pitches were thrown and three strikes were called. There was more grumbling from the stands. I could not make out who the umpire was, with his face guard on. I knew most of the umpires because I had watched what seemed like a thousand baseball games. This one seemed new to me.

During the next half of the inning we had more poor umpire calls. Consistently when it was a close call the umpires called it for the other side. The grumbling from our parents got louder each time.
"Didn't I tell you he would call it for his team.", said one father.
"Yeah, but our kids get to play the game and he doesn't cost much." said one of the mothers.
Just then I turned to look at the field. The umpire took off his mask. It was the other teams Coach, Mr O'Dell!
"What is going on?" I asked.
"Talk to O'Dell." came the chorus of replies from my stands.

The games continued, dismally, we lost 10 to nothing. The calls always going against our boys. Throughout the game, Mr O'Dell always remaind kind and cheerful. Each time a harsh comment came from the crowd he woud respond with a genuine smile and never fired back. You just felt like liking this guy. He was personable and ...well ... just likable. A guy you wanted to be around. I cornered him after the game and gently ask why he was both a league board member, a coach and an umpire. He explained that there had been a few complaints about a few of the hired umpires. The board, at his suggestion, had decided that it cost too much to pay the umpires. This way the board members could coach for less cost to everyone and provide a higher quality of umpiring. In fact, the board was considering lowering the enrollment fees.

"Don't you think its unfair for the game and the boys,that the people who make the rules also call the game?" , I asked.
"In fact," he replied, "we think it makes the game better. It adds competition for the umpires. It keeps them honest. It improves the competition and makes the boys work harder to win. We believe in our decision, whole heartedly. Its what this league has needed for a long time. And we had the votes to make it happen."

His response caught me off guard. He was so nice and seemed to know what he was talking about. I did not even know how to respond. I just walked away, shaking my head. It made no sense to me. How do you improve competition by rigging the system. If you are the one who makes the rules and enforces the rules, what makes that good.

The next day I called another board member, Mrs Pellagrino. I told her about my conversation with Mr O'Dell and asked her opinion.
"I am excited about this new system!", she replied, "In fact I just got off the phone with a baseball league organizer in Nevada. They are hoping to change their system to be like ours! It provides great quality control when you can make good rules, have coaches you trust teaching the rules and be sure the game gets umpired by those who care about the rules."
"How do you think it will affect the boys?" I asked.
Mrs Pelligrino went on, "They will love it once the novelty wears off. We just need to give them some time to get used to it. We have worked hard on this change. We studied it and talked it to death. I hope you can see that this change is for everyone's best."

She was not as kind and likeable as Mr O'Dell, but seemed like a reasonable lady. I wondered if maybe I had gotten it wrong. What was I missing? Was this really a good thing? It did not make sense, but the board was convinced. I decided to let it drop. Maybe it was not worth the effort to argue against this. I had other things to do. Other more pressing responsibilities.

A year passed and last month we were deciding whether or not to sign our now 11 year old son up for this year's baseball. When we called around to the various leagues we discovered that all the leagues were now using the same system. All the leagues board members were coaching teams and they were using only board members for umpires. We also discovered, without surprise, that no parents were willing to coach the teams. The only teams that had formed were coached by board members. We decided that our son would not play baseball this year. We will find another game to play.

Many of you reading this have already guessed that it is a fictional story. It would be absurd for a league to take over baseball like I described. No one would play the game. The parents would not allow it. The board members would be thrown out or the parents would start new leagues.

Yet, this is what our current federal government and its willing accomplices in the legislature wants to do to our economy. With the bailout of our economy, they now make the rules (via legislation), coach the team (by owning car companies) and umpire (by enforcing their regulations via "Czars"). The game is rigged and our freedom to compete is being stripped from us. They want to take over the game. Yet this game is not baseball, its our financial well being.

The President and the Legislature now wants to do the same with your healthcare. Our President wants to "improve" the system by adding "competition" for the insurance companies. But how can an industry compete with a government system that is regulated by the same people who make the rules. I am not a fan of the Health Insurance industry, and it is a big part of the problem. However, just look at Medicare, Medicaid, The VA, and Tricare. These are Government run systems and they are very badly run. These programs are a large part of the poor quality that we are getting in our current system. Why do you want to give more power to the same people who have messed up Medicare. The proposals that are currently before congress are a death to our health in this country. Please contact your federal representatives and ask them to vote "NO" to the current proposals. I will write more in my blog, in the future, about what kinds of fixes might be better for our healthcare.