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Madding lineups, and the limits of grace

Being a sports fan — or, at least, being a sports fan who isn’t driven into gibbering, incoherent rage at every janky half-hearted swing — requires a constant invocation of the Serenity Prayer: The grace to accept that which cannot be changed.

After all, that’s the implicit bargain we make with athletes. They’re doing things which we absolutely cannot do. That they can’t do it most of the time makes the moments when they make it happen all the more thrilling. Even when we get frustrated that they strike out or leave one middle-middle when the catcher was clearly calling for it inside dammit, we know that’s the deal.