“Take me out to the ball game, take me out to the crowd. Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jacks, I don’t care if I never get back,” is typically what die hard American baseball fans chant in the stands right before the Yankees score another run.

Baseball has been branded as the favorite American pastime and serves as a family tradition in many households. This is why it’s especially heartbreaking to learn that eight total members of the Southfield High School varsity and JV baseball teams received their report cards and found out that they were ineligible after the fifth card marking right- in the middle of the baseball season. They fell below a C average and became bench riders when we needed them most.

Unfortunately, Southfield has the baseball talent, but not the grades. Normally, a varsity coach could just raid the junior varsity baseball team to beef up the lineup in a pathetic situation like this. But not this year. The JV team is also practically nonexistent due to a vast population of students not being able to get a 2.0 grade point average, which is not only a Southfield High School requirement but a state requirement for sports as well.

So the varsity team is a patchwork combination of a few Varsity stars and the leftover junior varsity members. It is unfortunate for gifted players like Leon McKissic who have dedicated four years to the team. They now risk the chance of not being scouted because the team has been brought down as a whole.

In the larger picture, the future of baseball at Southfield High is looking bleak because students don’t quite seem to grasp the idea of maintaining a 2.0 grade point average. The foundation for the baseball team is set by the previous year. The year is evidently in shambles and next year isn’t looking too good either.

The Southfield baseball team needs to crack down and bring its grades up “because it’s 1…2…3 strikes you’re out at the old ball game.”