Baseball’s empty uniforms

If all goes according to the schedule that Major League Baseball has issued, then shortly after 8 p.m. on April 2, an umpire standing behind home plate at Joe Robbie Stadium will yell, “Play ball!”

Shortly thereafter, someone wearing a Florida Marlins uniform will trudge to the mound and pitch to someone wearing a New York Mets uniform. …

Ah, but who will be wearing those uniforms? …

If teams stocked with non-entities get the equivalent of one huge Bronx cheer, maybe the two sides finally will be ready to hold constructive talks instead of prolonging their dirt-kicking, bench-clearing rhubarb. Miami Herald

When Enola Gay came crashing down

You can concede that the Smithsonian Institution made some awful blunders in its preparation of the Enola Gay exhibit, and still be nervous about letting talk shows and politicians become the arbiters of history.

The venerable Smithsonian clearly underestimated the raw emotions still connected with World War II and the dropping of the atom bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It erred again when it dismissed veterans’ objections to its clumsy first draft of the exhibit plan as no more than the howling of the ignorant and unwashed.

It looks as if both sides have had a lot more certitude about the motives surrounding the use of the bomb than did Harry Truman and his advisers in 1945. …

The best reason to respect academicians’ freedom to make mistakes is that the process of interpreting history is self-correcting, as the prisms and certitudes of one generation give way to challenge and revision by the next. Detroit Free Press

Declare a truce in the war on fat

Behind America’s obsession with fat there bubbles a national conspiracy against any pleasurable food. Traditional Puritans thus have joined forces with closet Puritans.

They aim to convince us that we are doing something morally wrong if we get too much pleasure from fat-rich foods. …

Let us reclaim the pleasure of eating “bad” foods in moderation without guilt. Moderate caloric intake and regular exercise should of course be the hallmarks of all our lives. But enough of the shrill whistles from the Calorie Cops. … Miami Herald

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