Not what it used to be.

This week, being unable to get anything on TV, I've watched ten episodes of Ken Burns's "Baseball" on Netflix. The reason I lost interest in baseball, I think, is that late in the 1990's, or maybe even sooner, baseball stopped being fun to watch. I think it stopped being fun to play, to judge by reactions of the players. A Columbian or Puerto Rican kid could somehow get into U.S. big league baseball, having the time of his life, and get caught up in a race to break a Babe Ruth or Roger Maris record, and get his life essentially ruined by drugs and steroids and owner malice. All of that was much worse than, for instance, Carl Furillo trying to strangle Leo Durocher, which was lots of fun. Anyway, "Baseball" is a good series, at least up until the mid-'nineties.