incentives

This morning I was outside our school as parents were dropping off their kiddies.  The New York Mets fans amongst them were lamenting the final collapse of the team this weekend (The NY Yankees fans have already moved from denial to anger to grief).  One dad said he was ready for it because the team seemed to be collapsing for the past month or so.  He couldn't imagine that, with a sold out stadium and an enthusiastic crowd cheering them on, the Mets didn't seem to be motivated.

It got me thinking, with both New York baseball teams getting new stadiums next season, this might be the chance to give the players some "incentives" to play better.  For example...

• The home team locker room starts off with only one toilet.  For every 7 runs the team scores, another toilet gets installed.
  
• There's only one shower head; 10 strikeouts by a pitcher gets another shower.  A perfect game gets a jacuzzi for the trainers' room.
• For every double play = clean towels after the game
• Every 5 homers = a security guard for the players' parking lot (this doesn't seem like much, but in the Bronx or Queens, that can be huge).

You wonder if such a policy could be implemented in the Church: a good homily gets the priest cable TV for the week, making a sick call gets the hot water heater turned on, etc.

I suppose the downside to this is, while we can all agree that baseball teams need to score runs and prevent the other team from doing the same, we'd never get the "Joe & Jane Catholics" to agree on what is considered "good & pleasing".  For as many that complain that the homily given by the Priest (or Deacon or Bishop) was ill-prepared or lacking any "meat", there are just as many who don't care what gets said, as long as it gets said in 3 minutes (or less).