The Results of Careless Comments (Bot9 #325)

The news of this LIV Golf Tour finally taking shape is really worth consideration. I’m withholding any opinion in the matter as it appears to have been long overdue. The PGA Tour has been challenged as a monopoly in the past and it seems that professional golfers should have more than one forum to make money. But, maybe more importantly, this move illustrates a more important movement in society as a whole.

Jordan Peterson’s second book, Beyond Order, opens with a first rule - “Do not carelessly denigrate social institutions or creative achievement.” I’m not sure if Peterson would consider the PGA Tour a “social institution” or a “creative achievement” or not, but I do think it’s worth respect as an institution. I wonder if the move to the LIV Tour started simply with conversation and evolved into something that is now so much more. Jesus says, “For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of” (Matthew 12:34; Luke 6:45) and we now sit divided as some pros play here while others play there.

We’re seeing this same breakdown in areas in the baseball world as well. The world these young baseball players live in is so very different than the one I played in back in the 1990s. The control of institutions, the NCAA and its schools, over the athletes has lessened considerably with the advent of the transfer portal. A college coach’s job is so much more complicated than it was just three years ago, and so many of my friends in that world are seeking clarity and understanding. The athletes are in the same boat, but they are left in a position to think the grass is greener somewhere else and guided as such. The idea of “make the big time where you are” by legendary coach Frosty Westering has been lost largely because the NCAA and the college education system as a whole has been under such scrutiny for so many years.

And speaking of scrutiny, what people group endures more scrutiny than baseball umpires? They’ve been part of the fabric of the social institution of baseball and now there’s a shortage nationwide. We had to turn to a couple of our senior athletes in the school to umpire JV and C level games this spring as a result. With the aging population of the current pool of umpires and who the heck would choose to be an umpire at this point, I’m just not sure where this spiral ends.

I’m certain that there have been plenty of examples in history of these kinds of changes and things settle into a new order. These are new for me and hit closer to home because they’re in the sports world and feel like they’re the result of our hearts not being in a good place. My hope is that the pendulum swings away from the foolishness of careless comments on social media and back towards a heart aligned with what is good, noble, true and helpful.