Not Your Father's Ballgame

(Originally Posted 5/17/2010)

I have an idea for a new sport. It’s like baseball, except for the following:

· 21 players are on the field at the same time

· The field is sixty miles wide by 75 miles long

· All players have both a bat and a glove

· The bat is actually a type of rail gun capable of hurling the ball many miles

· The glove is actually a unimaginably powerful magnetic device

· All players wear an electronic eyepiece that helps them see the ball better and an earpiece that keeps them in constant contact with the coach

· Players and the coach can communicate with hand signals to coordinate the action

Sound exciting yet? Here’s where we make the game a bit more challenging:

· The coach can see and speak with his team, just not necessarily at the same time

· Not everyone’s bat fires the ball at the same speed

· Not everyone’s glove has the same magnetic power

· A player can communicate with other players when they hit the ball, but that information will not get out to everyone at the same time – in fact, some players may not get the information until they see the ball heading straight for them

The rules for this sport are pretty simple:

· Hit the ball as best you can

· Catch the ball when possible, and then hit it as best you can to someone else

· Scoring is dependent upon the accuracy of the hit

Seems like a sport like this would be impossible to play, yet there we were tonight, doing our damnedest to make it work. The critics of distance learning may point to our experience and say “get back to the classroom, all of you,” but I want to play this game more and not just get better at it but actually get good at it.