Suspended
Here we sit, no tryouts, unable to schedule games, waiting for the prison officials to finish up their investigation into the death threats, and figure out what to do with the troublemakers. Seems like it is simple: to the hole with you, or to Pelican Bay with you. The question comes to me: Why now are certain convicts being coddled?
No answers, week after week. Teams are contacting me and I am filling out the schedule but maybe there will be no baseball. Then I get the following email:
“Please be advised that effective immediately, the San Quentin Recreational Baseball, Softball, and Football programs[1], and all associated volunteers for those programs, are suspended pending investigation.
“The existing volunteer ID cards and gate clearances have been pulled from the E. Gate. Any pending IDs are being withheld from final processing, until this investigation is complete and the matter resolved.”
The new professional baseball team in town, the San Rafael Pacifics are on the verge of having to forget coming in to play our team. What about the Military Baseball Team? It is probably too late to contact various media now about coming in. The pitchers cannot possibly be ready even if the suspension be lifted today. It takes a couple, better several months, for a pitcher to build up arm strength and be ready to throw for even a few innings.
The CDW has every right to suspend the whole thing. His job is to maintain the integrity of the prison and seeing to recreational opportunities does not figure high on his priority list. Okay, that is a given. What rights do I have? None, really, and there would not be a blip on the screen should I drop dead this very day.
Just how important is the prison baseball program to me? Have I lost my balance here? Could I take walking away after so many years of struggle? Not to get overly philosophical about this but, life is not fair. Cons, those who do not get very far along the rehabilitation schematic, think life should be fair and they have seen nothing of fairness, and they are mad as hell, or madder than hell, and no reasonable argument, if one could be made, will suffice.
This whole thing is unfair, and it will likely never be corrected.
[1] Only the sports programs I am responsible for are suspended.