I had the game on the background yesterday while driving around with a friend who’s a casual baseball fan. When the Cubs scored two runs in the top of the ninth to tie it, he turned to me and said, “Oh, I’m really sorry. I thought the Rangers had this one.”

It occurred to me, he thought this was real baseball. He thought I would have some emotional connection and reaction to the Rangers blowing a save in the ninth inning of a spring training game, blowing the 8-2 lead they had at one time.

I told him this is not really how a baseball game that mattered would have been played. The Rangers would not have substituted pitching the way they did. They would never have employed the same strategy if the game mattered.

He was a bit confused.

So, I broke it down for him in the only way he could understand.

I told him, “Spring training games mean as much as a Cowboys season. They are both irrelevant. Rangers play spring training games to prepare for the real season. The record doesn’t matter, they’re not winning any kind of trophy or anything. It’s spring training. Same thing with the Cowboys. The Cowboys play every season to prepare for their next season. This season’s record doesn’t matter, they’re not winning any kind of trophy or anything. Spring training is just pretend baseball. A Cowboys season is just pretend football.”

He still didn’t get it.

“Okay, take strategy. Teams that are trying to win would never substitute players into the game the way the Rangers do in spring training. And football teams that are trying to win would never employ the same roster building strategy for their regular seasons as the Cowboys do.”

He got it.

*****

TODAY’S CACTUS LEAGUE GAME:

Texas vs Milwaukee, 2:10

Radio: 105.3 FM