John Robert's opened with this at his 2005 confirmation hearing:

[Atticus]

“Judges are like umpires. Umpires don’t make the rules; they apply them. The role of an umpire and a judge is critical. They make sure everybody plays by the rules. But it is a limited role. Nobody ever went to a ball game to see the umpire... I will remember that it’s my job to call balls and strikes and not to pitch or bat.”

If not such a harmful lie, that would be laughable.

He thought the SCOTUS was similar to baseball, with rules, clearly marked boundaries and sacred traditions. But, Ayatollah Alito, Ginnie's squeeze and the Trump Triumvirate are there to play smash-mouth politics.

[Walleye]

1. But what if the starting pitcher is married to the umpire?

[gab13by13]

3. OMG you brought back really old memories.

I live in a small town, the surrounding area had fantastic baseball teams. Sparky Lyle played for one of the teams.

Way before Sparky our town's team had an exhibition game with the Homestead Grays We had a homer ump for sure. Gates Brown was pitching for the Grays and after he threw a pitch right down the middle and our ump called it a ball, Gates Brown walked off the mound, went to our ump and simply said, "hey man, do you want me to hang a lantern on that ball?"

That's how an old timer told the story to me.

[Walleye]

4. That is a great story.

I guess we are going to have to hang a lantern on the corruption in the Supreme Court.

[gab13by13]

5. I forgot,

The Grays only beat our team by 1 run, with our homer ump. I was too young, but I'm guessing they were like the Harlem Globetrotters. When they threw a runner out on a ground ball, Gates went to our runner and asked him if he was pulling a plow to first base?

I did get to play against Sparky and others who made the majors. There were players who played for college teams. I got to pitch. My first game coming out of high school, on a 40 degree day, I walked the 1st 3 batters, had a 2-0 count on the 4th batter before he hit a grand slam. I settled down and it was 4-4 in the 10th inning, my arm was so sore I could hardly reach home plate. They got 2 runs in the 10th and we only got 1. My arm ached for a month. When I was a kid we all played baseball wherever we could find a field.

[Walleye]

6. Sounds like a really good game

[mountain grammy]

2. Worst umpire in history.

Everytime I see a bad call I say, that's Roberts!

[panader0]

7. Calling balls and strikes isn't necessarily applying rules--it's a personal opinion.

I've seen many strikes called balls and visa versa.

[Scrivener7]

8. Worst chief justice since Taney.

[reymega life]

9. I agree