First Monday and Every Monday
January 16, 2006

Baseball and Gun Control

The recent World Series victory by the Chicago White Sox brought back memories of when I lived in Bethesda, Maryland (1979-1993). During that time, I came to love the Baltimore Orioles. I used to listen to their games on the radio all the time. Not that I sat in a chair and listened to the game. Rather, I just had the game on while I went about other activities around the house, in the yard, or while driving around.

I liked many of the Orioles, but my favorite Oriole wasn’t Brooks (Robinson), Eddie (Murray), or Cal (Ripkin). My favorite Oriole wasn’t even a player at all. It was Earl Weaver, the manager of the Orioles for fourteen and a half seasons from 1968-1982. During this time he had a winning percentage of .596 and the Orioles finished first or second in the American League 13 times – and never lower than fourth.

One of my favorite parts of an Oriole’s game was “Manager’s Corner” – a five-minute monologue by Weaver during the pre-game show in which he talked about baseball strategy and his managerial approach to the game. Listening to Weaver talk about baseball, you discovered why he was called “baseball’s master tactician.” 

In spite of his success, Weaver also had his critics. Many sports writers and columnists criticized him for being reluctant to bunt. “I’ve got nothing against the bunt – in its place,” Weaver would say, “But most of the time, that place is the bottom of a long-forgotten closet.”

But by listening to “Manager’s Corner,” you learned why he seldom bunted. Weaver explained that the object of the bunt was to score a run. So it only made sense to bunt when one run would win the game – like the bottom of the ninth of a tie game. The problem with the bunt, Weaver went on to explain, was that, “If you play for one run, that’s all you will ever get.”

Weaver’s approach was to go for the big inning, especially early in the game. And he had the stats to back him up. In more than half of all major league games, the winning team scores enough runs in one inning to win the game. Weaver called the three run homer a “manager’s best friend.” Said Weaver, “The easiest way around the bases is with one swing of the bat.”

So what does this have to do with gun control? Simply this. Most gun control advocates are “bunting” with legislative proposals for “trigger locks” and “closing the gun show loophole.” But even if these bills were to pass in the Congress, policy analysts point out that they would have little effect on gun deaths and injuries.

What the gun control movement needs now is a “three run homer.” For example, regulating guns as consumer products the way we regulate virtually every other consumer product for safety – from children’s toys to jumbo jets. There are only two consumer products that are exempted from regulation by the federal government – one is tobacco and the other is guns. Even though the gun industry produces a product that kills or injures about 120,000 Americans a year, guns are not regulated for safety by any federal agency. There are more federal regulations on toy guns than real guns.

Or how about a “grand slam” by restricting handgun ownership to only law enforcement personnel. Of the approximately 30,000 gun deaths, 90,000 nonfatal injuries, and 600,000 crimes committed with guns each year in the U.S., 75 percent of all deaths and injuries and 85 percent of the crimes involve a handgun.

How can anyone believe that we can dramatically reduce gun violence in the U.S. without addressing the role of handguns?

The gun control movement should consider the Earl Weaver approach. This isn’t the bottom of the ninth of a tie game. It’s the middle innings and we are behind. One run won’t do it. We need a “big inning.”

“Praised be the three run homer.” Earl Weaver