8/13/2008

Benjamin The Bat Boy Tells All...

How do you get to be the bat boy? Pick up the phone and ask...



If you're a youngster in Rochester with a love for baseball, being a bat boy for the Honkers is about the best way to spend your summer. That's what Benjamin Copeland is doing. Along with four other boys, Ben fetches bats and balls for the team's home games.

He gets razzed by the college athletes, and he razzes them right back. He's a smart, quick-witted young fellow who loves to entertain the crowd by getting out on the field to dance to the "Cha Cha Slide."

The Post-Bulletin headed to Mayo Field Wednesday to talk with Ben before the Honkers game against the Thunder Bay Bordercats. A thunderstorm rolled through, but by game time, the skies had cleared.


How did you get the bat boy job?

You have to call in really early before the season and have an interview with the owner of the Honkers. You have to sit down in these officey chairs and office table and talk with them. They told me about the job and what we have to do so we don't get in trouble or get fired.

Do you like hanging out with the players?

Yeah, they teach me things. They teach me how to be a better baseball player. I play in the Rochester Youth Baseball Association league. It's pretty much just T-Ball, but we get to pitch and hit. But you don't hit off a tee. It's Little League.

What's your team's name?

The Loose Bolts.

Do the Honkers games go past your bedtime?

Yeah, they always do. But my parents don't get mad. I just get to bed right when I get home.

What are your responsibilities?

We have to get the bats. We have to get the balls. Keep the dugout loose (one of the players told him to say this). We have to dance to the "Cha Cha."

Hey, one of the guys is giving you the "moose ears."

What?

Behind you, he's giving you the moose ears.

Oh, great. OK, so, what do you get paid for doing all this work?

Nothing. Well, free Gatorade and food.

Story by Edie Grossfield

Rochester Post-Bulletin

Click here for the video.

8/11/2008

A Loss Of Trust



I certainly agree that ethical behavior in the marketplace would be nice. But history tells us that it isn't going to happen.

Whether it's the Teapot Dome scandal in the 1920s, the savings and loan disaster in the 1980s, the collapse of Enron or the present mortgage meltdown, our history is replete with examples that show that trusting the elites that dominate the marketplace is not in the best interest of the American people.

While far from perfect, government regulation is much better than hoping for ethical behavior in the marketplace.

Why does it seem that whenever one of our great business and financial crises occur, we discover that the government agency that is supposed to regulate our corporate and financial institutions has been cut back so drastically that it can't do its job?

We need to connect the dots.

We need a government that is responsible to the people and is willing to provide regulatory agencies with the funding, staff, and expertise needed to regulate the marketplace. We need better oversight of those agencies.

We need leaders whose spines don't turn to jelly when confronted by the rhetoric about the sanctity of the free market and the evils of regulation.


Stan Markowitz
Baltimore

8/10/2008

The Eyes Have It...


"The universe is wider than our views of it."

Thoreau