MEMORIES

Greetings to those coming here searching for Orioles v Yankees playoff fan interference. And if you think about this issue, you're left with three choices: condemn it when it happens to your team but don't condemn it when it happens to your opponents, say that a bad call is a bad call is a bad call and wrong no matter when it happens, or say that it may be unfortunate when your team gets screwed, but that's the way the game is played and it will all even out in the end somehow. It's really hard to hold to the second line; since we also have incredible abilities to define "bad call" in ways that we find retrospectively congenial, the second line often develops into the first (or at least a reasonable observer could think so). The first is hypocrisy and should probably be avoided. The third is more consistent and probably the most humanly possible approximation of a sensible approach to the issue. Plus, it requires, at least, that the hope that "things will even out in the end" is not a pipe dream. There has to be alteration of winners and losers, and there has to be a process that produces alteration. If there's no alteration, then bad calls are really only the tip of the iceberg.

Draw out the analogy to politics (and the courts) and you can see what I'm getting at here.