An Old Man's Take On Baseball

 Writing this blog can be depressing at times. BTW, those who find reading this blog to be depressing have the freedom to not read it. Writing this blog requires that I pay more attention than usual to politics, religion, culture, society, and world events. And regardless of where my focus is, the story always seems to be the same though with different actors reading from different scripts. That same old story is that we are becoming the cause of our own demise simply because we refuse to share power and wealth.

So this week, I decided to take a break and write about my favorite sport to watch: Baseball. I like watching football too but George Carlin gives a brief introduction as to why baseball is superior to football (for yous Millennials and younger generations, click here for Carlin's routine). 

I prefer watching baseball over football because of all the team sports we can watch, baseball points a way to a more civilized society. It is only the rare exception that football does the same. 

How does baseball do that? It does it though sportsmanship. For no other sport contains even close to the amount of good sportsmanship during the game as baseball does. When a player from the team that is batting reaches first base, he is often greeted and chats with the opposing team's ambassador: the First Baseman. More often than not, the base runner and the first baseman engage in friendly conversations until either the inning is over or the base runner is called out or the base runner advances. If the latter occurs, it is not uncommon for the base runner to chat with the other infielders during what is called "dead time." 

Or consider how the players of an opposing team so quickly respond when a player is injured. Or consider how the home plate umpire  and batter react when the catcher gets hit with the ball or when the catcher and batter respond with the umpire gets hit with the ball.

Or take the pace of the game, baseball has times of action interspersed with times of inactivity. The latter time has lately been referred to as "dead time."  In reality, there is no real dead time in baseball. During the times of inactivity, there is the formulation of strategy, positioning, and time to reflect. And perhaps what ardent football fans prefer is violent action over thinking.

See, baseball is a very competitive sport that is, with the rare exception, played without violence. It is normally played without a team trying to gain an advantage over another team by injuring key players from the other team. It's not that baseball is a utopian sport. From time to time, there are fights, bad sportsmanship, and even efforts by members of one team to gain an advantage by injuring key players from the other team, but such is an exception. And in this age where self-restraint is more and more being thrown aside, baseball lights the way to a better tomorrow.

However, now, I need to give an old man's perspective of the rule changes. MLB has instituted 3 some new rules: the number of pickoff throws that can by made by the pitcher, limiting the shift, increasing the size of the bases, and the clock governing when the batter must engage the pitcher and the pitcher must start throwing the ball. One of the major reasons for the first and last rule changes is to to speed up the game. Limiting the number of pickoff throws and limiting the degree in which a team can shift their players to adjust to a hitter were installed to increase scoring in baseball games.

I would modify the rule for the number of times the can try to pickoff a baserunner. Currently, the pitcher is only allowed to try to pickoff a given runner 2 times. If the pitcher fails to pickoff the baserunner on the 3rd try, the runner gets to advance to the next base. It's not a bad rule, but I think 2 times is just too small of a number. It should be increased to be at least 3 times with 4 or 5 times being the upper limit.

I can live with or without the limiting of the shift. The shift is where the team in the field can overload the number of players playing to one side of the infield. The shift was usually installed for what is called a pull hitter. A right-handed pull hitter would predominantly hit the ball to the left of 2nd base while a left-handed pull hitter would predominantly hit the ball to the right of 2nd base. The reason why I could live with or without the shift is because batters could respond to the shift by hitting the ball to the opposite field. Such is an important skill to have for any batter.

I like the increased size of the bases. What increasing their size means to an old man like me is that it is now easier to see the bases whether I am at the ball park watching the game in person or watching on tv. Of course, getting a larger screen tv also helps me see the bases.

However, the one rule change that I am adamantly against is the clock. The clock limits the amount of time a pitcher can take between pitches. It is meant to speed up the game. If I am at the game, I want to spend as much time as possible watching the game. That is because with the ticket prices being what they are today, my ticket is basically a rent agreement for my seat. And so the longer the game goes on, the more I am getting for my money from the rent agreement. The reason for hating the clock changes when I am sitting in a recliner watching a game at home. Such a situation often inspires my body to take a nap. And I don't want the game to end before I wake up. Otherwise,  I will actually have to get up out the recliner and walk to where the computer is to check the score. And with a shortened game, it is easier to sleep past the end of the game rather than to wake up with the game still in progress. I fully expect MLB to take my problems with the clock into consideration for when it adjusts the rules for next year. 

Anyway, that is my take on baseball. Next week, this blog will return to deal with the depressing real world. If only we could make rule changes that would make the world less depressing for all. That shouldn't be too hard, baseball did it.