Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Cabbie Presents Baseball

I just read that drivers in Russia have bought thousands of baseball bats to protect themselves in disputes. And apparently a lot of taxi drivers in particular have them. (You can search Youtube for the videos of Russian cabbie fights if you so desire.) This is one of those stories that's weird on so many levels. For one thing, this won't help the taxi drivers to fight their biggest threat, unless they're headed to Silicon Valley to take some swings at the Uber servers. And no offence Russians, but I still prefer the approach of American Taxi Drivers.

But it also brings up a question I've always wondered about: who are these psychos who sell baseball bats in Europe? This isn't the first time; you'll often hear it after a riot or a clash between soccer hooligans that they had baseball bats. It's never cricket bats: I assume that would be undignified.

Doesn't it occur to anyone as a little suspicious that people are buying equipment for a sport that's not very popular? It's not like they're buying gloves and balls to go with them. Imagine if we suddenly sold ten-thousand Scottish shinty clubs. Wouldn't someone ask some questions?  Why not have some sort of test before you buy a bat in Europe.  Say, you have to explain the infield fly rule in under a minute, or no bat for you.

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