On Monday, July 21, Phillies infielder Edmundo Sosa was up to bat at the Bank in the 10th inning with the bases loaded, no outs, and an opportunity to win the game for the Fightin’s. Boston Red Sox pitcher Jordan Hicks made his pitch, and Sosa made contact — but not with the ball. Instead, he tapped the catcher Carlos Narváez’s mitt. For several minutes no one knew what should happen next. Finally, the umpires determined that the encroachment of the mitt into Sosa’s swing space was “catcher’s interference.” Sosa was awarded first base, forcing in the winning run. A walk-off catcher’s interference had not happened in 54 years.
So what can we learn from this weird baseball occurrence?
Lesson 1: When you watch a baseball game, you will almost always see something unique. (Case in point, another very different example of catcher’s interference happened the very next night, when Phils first baseman Bryce Harper stole home, and Narváez stepped in front of the plate.)
Lesson 2: When we are focused exclusively on defending our own singular position, we risk encroaching upon others’ legitimate territory. Rules are important to deal with complex situations, as the umpires did in their call of catcher’s interference. That’s true in politics as well as in baseball.
What we’re dealing with in politics right now is an open manipulation of political rules to bring about extreme partisan results. Trump’s budget director Russ Vought is committing his own kind of catcher’s interference. He has been open about his rejection of team spirit. In his view, there’s only one team, team Trump. Betraying budget agreements made by Congressional Republicans only four months earlier, Vought crafted a $9 billion rescissions package, eliminating all federal funds for NPR and PBS, clawing back $8 billion in foreign aid, and sweeping in assorted cuts to education. (Thanks to readers who called Senators McCormick and Fetterman to try to stop this.)
Vought continues to gloat over using technicalities, rescission, for example, for dishonorable purposes. According to Washington Monthly, Vought told reporters at the July 17 Christian Science Monitor Breakfast, “The appropriations process has to be less bipartisan.” Less bipartisan! He also went on record to say that another rescissions package is “likely to come soon.” We are also dealing with executive orders bypassing Congress’s power of the purse to decimate federal agencies, including the Department of Education.
Vought and the Republicans are clearly and intentionally encroaching on what should be bipartisan space in Congress. I see that as catcher’s interference. What should the penalty be? Politics would do well to learn from baseball. In baseball, as in politics and life, penalties should reflect an appropriate response to harm. Voters are the ultimate umpires and must decide on these penalties.
The Democrats must be sorely tempted to find their own ways to violate boundaries, to fixate only on their own side, and to dehumanize the other. I would argue that most Democrats understand that in politics, as in baseball, appropriate boundaries protect everyone and the game itself. It’s not clear from the Republicans’ play that they understand this. Congress is facing an October 1 deadline for passing the 2026 budget. According to current rules, this passage requires a filibuster-proof 60-vote margin in the Senate.
So what should Democrats do?
Bill Scher in the Washington Monthly suggests this response to Vought: “You want a partisan appropriations process? You got it.”
Scher writes:
Democrats should immediately announce that all talks about Fiscal Year 2026 appropriations are over. Democrats, even in the congressional minority, are willing to share the responsibility of governing for the common good. But they cannot exercise joint responsibility if Republicans not only won’t keep bipartisan agreements but are openly dismissive of them.
In other words, are we playing baseball? Do we have two teams playing the game or not?
On the budget, a complete game, defined as passing a financial plan for the following year, currently requires at least seven Democratic votes. The Democrats should make it clear that they do not want the government to be shut down. The Republicans, however, have only two options:
- They could change the rules. And we have seen that the Republicans are not reluctant to play that mind-game. Rule changes are supposed to require a two-thirds vote. But, hey, the Republicans can mess with history and invoke a so-called nuclear option to get their way. Good-bye umpires (in this case the Senate parliamentarian); good-bye history of the game. If one party tears up the rule book, the other party can do the same once they return to power. Goodbye baseball.
- Or, Republicans could protect the game and agree to play a two-team, fair game. As Scher suggests, “The Fiscal Year 2026 appropriations bills could include provisions that protect spending from the threat of rescission. Separate legislation could be enacted that broadly subjects future rescission requests to filibusters.”
Perhaps instead of focusing on renaming Cleveland’s MLB team, Trump and his Congressional minions should focus on learning a little more about the sport itself, a sport where the rules are in place for everyone — and if you push the umpire too far, you’ll get kicked out.
Politicians and fans alike would be well advised to learn from the power and beauty of America’s game.
Go, Phils!
What we can do
- Call Senator McCormick’s office. Remind him that Congressional politics is a team sport — and sports follow rules. You might add a plea to vote against the nomination of Emil Bove to serve as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (which serves PA, New Jersey, Delaware, and the Virgin Islands). Bove, Trump’s former defense lawyer, has no judicial experience and is opposed by a bipartisan group of former federal prosecutors and judges. Bove is not worthy of a lifetime appointment with consequential decisions for citizens of our region.
- Call Senator Fetterman’s office. Ask him to encourage a bipartisan approach to the 2026 budget. Senator Fetterman has spoken often about the importance of bipartisanship, but we haven’t seen him motivating much team spirit from the Republican side.
- Even though the House of Representatives is suddenly taking an early vacation, you can call your Representative’s local office, since they are home now.
- Keep watching the Phillies win, as they honor the rules of baseball — a sport we can all learn from.
Elaine Maimon, Ph.D., is the author of Leading Academic Change: Vision, Strategy, Transformation. Her long career in higher education has encompassed top executive positions at public universities as well as distinction as a scholar in rhetoric/composition. Her co-authored book, Writing In The Arts and Sciences, has been designated as a landmark text. She is a Distinguished Fellow of the Association for Writing Across the Curriculum.
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