The U.S. is in disarray on numerous fronts, from the coronavirus pandemic still raging six months into 2020 to recent instances of police brutality offering another stark reminder of omnipresent racial disparities in the country.
While small potatoes compared to other issues, baseball is in an existential crisis as well. Normally a mode of distraction amid uncertain times, there is not currently a concrete plan for a 2020 return with owners and players locked in a bitter feud over salaries. There could be a full season lockout on the horizon, as well.
So when a 9-year-old wrote a desperate letter to Babe Ruth earlier in the pandemic asking the late slugger to save baseball, it wasn't too dramatic of a plea. The game really does need some saving.
We're not sure whether asking someone who has been dead for more than 70 years is the best chance of achieving salvation, but at this point it's worth a shot.
"Since he's like a guardian angel now, I wanted him to somehow make this pandemic stop," said the letter's author, Jake Curzon, to CBS.
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Like any young fan, Curzon had been excited to spend his summer relaxing and taking in America's pastime.
His unhappiness at baseball being taken away is apparent in his letter.
"They cancelled Baseball!" Curzon writes in his letter to Ruth. "The sport you loved is cancelled."
Ruth actually did correspond with kids during his life. At one point, he penned a letter to a child sick with polio, telling the youngster he would one day play in the big leagues.
Hopefully his ghost is similarly kind to us baseball fans.