Adieu, Mon Season, Adieu!

Well, despite the rain, despite the mud, despite a two-day delay, Philadelphia won the 2008 World Series. The puppy dog pile was intense with outfielders, right on cue, jumping on top of infielders who had jumped on top of the hugging pitcher and catcher. The Tampa Bay Rays looked on, dejected and sad and dreading the long plane ride home. And The Boyfriend and I, having already said good bye to our favorite teams in the regular season (me) and the post season (him), had one last good-bye to the Crossroads Lounge in Anchorage, (where friends meet) where to the bar’s credit they had the World Series on every tv monitor in the joint. But now the season turns to basketball, and football, and hockey and Sunday morning football games with a steak and egg special between 9 and 2 p.m. (We are of course 4 hours behind Eastern Standard Time so Alaskans are used to watching football in their jammies and with mugs of coffee in hand.) We’ll be back in April.

In so many ways, I’m ready for the season to be over. I’ll take a break, and focus on Christmas, and then on to the Mardi Gras season (check out http://www.killerrubboard.com/! ) and enjoy the beauty that an Alaskan winter has to offer. There’s an old wise-cracking saying from a button I used to wear during my sassier days that proclaims, “How can I miss you if you don’t go away?” So we have to have time to detach and forget and build up hope and excitement and build up our fighting weight again so we are fierce competitors and not the sentimental marshmallow I always turn into this time of year.

A couple last thoughts from The Girlfriend at the end of this baseball season, random thoughts, like a ball breaking loose into a ground ball and darting into the part of the outfield that no fielder covers.

First of all, baseball caps with ear flaps. Who knew? This is the first year that I’ve seen ear flaps on baseball hats, and they featured prominently in the Tampa Bay lineup during the blowing rain and 39 degree temperature of Monday’s game. You know, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Alaska hunters have been wearing hunting caps with ear flaps for years , but the baseball cap version is truly styling. I predict they are here to stay. You know those commercials featuring Joe Torre in Los Angeles and touting some kind of financial planning (the red dot people)? He is featured surfing and doing yoga and driving in a convertible. I can feel his blood thinning out even as he speaks. If he ever returns to a team in the North, he’ll be looking like Joe Maddon did last night. I think the Alaska Glacier Pilots team have already put in an order with Tampa’s team for next season. Can we get them in camouflage?

Secondly, groundskeepers rock! I’ve always been impressed by the guys with the lawnmowers who made intricate designs such as checkerboards, and stripes, and the funky Boston Red Sox logo in the infield. They carefully cultivate those patterns through a rich fertilizing program and mowers with specialty blades that bend the grass this way and that. The new ballparks are modern day temples in many ways, and the groundkeepers are the unsung heroes of grass and lushness. But in this World Series, it became obvious that different fields demand different care. The Tampa Bay Rays play in Tropicana Field, a domed stadium, and their grass looked meager and adequate, but no Field of Dreams. Philadelphia, with that beautiful new ball park, has a gorgeous field and you could tell that the temple keepers were a fine skilled bunch. But Game Five on Monday night was a groundskeeper’s nightmare. With rain pounding down for most of the game, the baserunning paths turned to a creek of soupy mud. Despite the groundskeeper’s diligent dumping of sawdust, the special “Groundskeeper Secret Sauce for Rainy Days,” and the judicial unrolling of a tarp bigger than the Matanuska Susitna Borough which holds the distinguished city of Wasilla, The baserunning and stealing game looked like those advertisements for “Slip and Slides.” They couldn’t stop the rain, but they kept the game going until the sixth inning. Last, night, the field looked beautiful. Gardeners’ rule!

And lastly, I think about why I started writing this blog in the first place. My goal was to help Girlfriends of the world understand and appreciate this game called baseball. I remember back to when I didn’t know what I didn’t know and when I didn’t understand baseball enough to even recognize my mistakes and faux pas. Those of us who weren’t baseball fans as children all took our first step somewhere. Somewhere along the line, we have an experience that changes it for us. We end up spending lots of time sitting next to someone on a couch whose passion is baseball. Or we become friends with his baseball buddy who knows more about baseball than most people on the planet. Or we meet a friend of a friend who pitches for a softball team and rabidly defends her team even through heartbreak and gossip about Madonna. Or your sister moves to a new town and is suddenly wearing red tee shirts and spouting off the latest batting stats for David Ortiz. Something invites you into this club of people who love baseball. If you are willing to learn, you are amazed how complex, and involved, and statistical, and fanatic, and heartbreaking, and quirky, and truly wonderful this game is.

I had to remember all this last night in the bar when a young woman came up to us in the bar last night to say hi to The Boyfriend who she knew through the music scene. She stopped, introduced herself, and started chatting, making small talk and being very friendly. What she didn’t know is that above her head was a tv set showing that it was the top of the 9th with Tampa up to bat, down 4 to 3 with two outs and two strikes. And the Phillies posed to win the World Series with the next out. She didn’t have a clue what was happening at that moment. I (and The Boyfriend) were smiling and nodding, but with our ears and our peripheral vision were watching the end of the Series happening before our very eyes. She left before the final out (whew!) with a friendly goodbye.

I realize she was a girlfriend waiting to happen. If I see her again, I need to take her aside and introduce her gently to the art of baseball. I’ll loan her my DVD copy of Bull Durham and invite her to join us at the Crossroads Lounge next April, when the baseball season will begin again and the Seattle Mariners will commence on their march to their first appearance ever in the World Series. Now that, girlfriend, is what I’m talking about. There is always next year.

See you at the game!

--The Girlfriend

Bat Boys and Ball Girls

During a Major League Baseball Game, the television coverage zeroes in on the players, the dugout, and the actual play of the game. But at every game, others help the game run and are an integral part of the game. You, too, can be a member of the team even if you can’t be in the World Series lineup.

I’m talking bat boys and ball girls.

Bat boys are the more traditional of the two. The bat boy is the kid (and sometimes an adult) who is the fetch-em-and-go-fer member of the team. They don’t get to just hang out in a uniform with a big BB on their backs. They work hard. Bat boys look after the equipment for the team. They get the uniforms lined out in the lockers and collect the laundry at the end of the day. They line out the bats and clean the shoes. And of course, during the game, they retrieved tossed bats and stray balls. If you are watching on tv, you often see them darting out between at bats scooping up balls, bats, and various detritus.

All bat boys in Major League Baseball have to be at least 14 years of age. This requirement came after a “hold your breath” episode when Dusty Baker’s, manager of the San Francisco Giants, 3-year-old-son (cute as the dickens in a mini-Giants uniform) almost got clobbered in Game 5 of the 2002 World Series when he went out to home plate to recover a bat. Unfortunately for the little guy, the play wasn’t over yet and a player was running toward home. Darren was scooped out of harm’s way before any collision occurred, but after that, the MLB instituted an age minimum.

Often the bat boy is a teenager or young adult, though a man named Stan Bronson served as "bat boy" for the University of Memphis for over 50 years. They are part of the team, so they also wear a uniform with the initials BB on the back. They work hard and get to the game way before everyone else, but what a cool job for someone who loves baseball! When the players show up for batting practice, sometimes it’s the ball boys who get to shag the flies in the outfield. They carry the balls out to the players and the pitchers. There aren’t a lot of bat girls in Major League Baseball because the position has to move easily in and out of the guys' locker room, and well, let’s just say that’s a little different than an adult female reporter doing interviews in the locker room. Often the bat boys are the ones who stand on the wrong side of the foul line to field foul balls, but more and more teams are using ball girls for that job.

And ball girls rock.

The primary responsibilities of the ball girls during the game are to chase down foul balls and throw them into the stand. Look for them sitting on their chairs tucked next to the walls. Ball girls retrieve fouls so that players don’t have to go chasing balls and they get the fun job of determining who gets to go home with a souvenir baseball. (Trust me, if you are a little kid holding out your baseball glove, you have a much better chance going home with that ball than if you are a drunk college guy waving your beer and shouting, “Hey, baby, I got your balls right here.”)

Seattle has been using ball girls at least since the Nineties. The Texas Rangers are in their second season of using ball girls. And to show the popularity of the program, in this past season, 600 girlfriends showed up in Philadelphia to audition for seventeen positions for the Phillies (Look for them in World Series play when play goes to Citizens Bank Park, ) All the women are long time softball and baseball players and athletes. To be a ball girl for a Major League Team, let’s face it, you usually have to be pretty and young. But just as importantly, you have to be able to think quickly, discern quickly whether the ball is fair or foul, you have to think quickly to get your chair out of the way of a fair ball, you have to be able to field balls hit by Major League Hitters and you have to be able to throw. And trust me, looking at the resumes of the Phillies ball girls, they aren’t slouches (for example, the team this year includes past Captain of Cherry Hill East softball team, a health and physical education teacher, a Division I track scholarship winner, a Penn Varsity Softball player, and a pitching instructor.) Trust me, if someone ever tells you, “You throw like a girl,” look ‘em straight in the eye and thank them for the compliment.

There was a video going around the internet about a ball girl in the minor leagues that is superb. It turned out to be a teaser video of a commercial for Powerade and is staged, but it is still fun to watch and shout, “You go, girl!”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SqJz0NgnnE

Of course, sometimes in her eagerness, a ball girl misjudges and makes a mistake. A Seattle Mariners’ ball girl named Rosie Santizo gained national attention during a 1998 game against Toronto when she came off her stool and dived after a ball hit into the corner by the Blue Jays' Craig Grebeck. But the ball was fair and Grebeck was awarded a double. However, the Seattle crowd went crazy, cheering the ever enthusiastic Rosie who had worked with the Mariners since she was 16. She was the only ball girl to show up for work wearing wrist bands and baseball cleats. According to Larry Stone in an article about Rosie in the Seattle Times, after leaving the Mariners, she stayed with professional baseball and worked as a cultural trainer for Latin America baseball recruits, teaching English and cultural literacy to players for the Boston Red Sox and Baltimore Orioles organizations. She finished her degree at the University of Washington in international business and Islamic studies. and worked for the Seattle Mariners to teach English to such players as Cuban born Yuniesky Betancourt.

Rosie had a big dream for a ball girl—she wanted to be a general manager of a Major League Baseball team. She was working toward this goal by working in Israel with the emerging Israeli Baseball League. Who even knew there was an emerging Israeli Baseball League? Unfortunately, that dream was cut short when she was killed in a car accident in Jordan in September of this year at the age of 29. The Seattle Mariners held a moment of silence before a game in September in her honor. Rosie was a girlfriend to be proud of.

You go, ball girl.

To The Victor Goes...

If you have been watching the playoffs, specifically the game last night that sends Tampa Bay to the World Series for the very first time, you have experienced the phenomena that I call the "puppy dog pile.” That is the exciting moment at the end of the game when the shortstop throws the ball to get the runner out at second and ends the game in the bottom of the ninth inning. Mayhem ensues and the pitcher throws his arms up in victory. The catcher throws off his bulky helmet and runs at the pitcher, jumping up and wrapping his legs around him in a huge bear hug and suddenly all the other players on the field jump on top of them until there is a teeming mass of legs and heads and hands pounding on each other. Here come the outfielders. It takes them longer to get to the action so they are the last ones there. They jumped on top of the pile until it is a churning lump of humanity, reminiscent of the “monkey piles” we formed in fourth grade.

Unbridled joy and celebration. This, girlfriend, is the prerogative of the victorious. The losers need not apply.

Tampa Bay beat the Red Sox 3 to 1 last night and won the series 4-3. It was a fun series one with some exciting twists, but this young team looked good and solid after a good and solid season and I wish them well in the Series. You’ll find, girlfriend, that when you know a little bit more about any game, you can appreciate it more when the team you and your couch buddy are rooting for loser in a well fought, well played game.

I know. I once told you that baseball will break your heart. And it does, almost every season. It’s no fun to lose. I’ve had the advantage of rooting for several teams this season—the Mariners (St. Rita, patron saint of lost causes, pray for us), the Milwaukee Brewers in the playoffs, and now in this past week, the Red Sox against Tampa Bay. So I found a way to extend the excitement of the baseball season. But last night I had to experience the same thing that my friends who are Yankee fans and are Cubs fans have already experienced. It’s time to close down your season of fan-dom. I know we still have the Series and great baseball ahead. But I’ll be watching it differently. More detached, more open to both teams, less enmeshed.

It’s a sad fact of being a fan that sometimes, it is just better when your team doesn’t make the playoffs or gets eliminated. Then you can return to being a normal human being again. You can sleep better. Maybe you can fold laundry or pay bills or do some other “multi-tasking” thing as you watch. Maybe you can skip a game or two and not be so obsessive about checking the internet. You aren’t sneaking peaks at the computer generated game update on mlb.com and emailing The Boyfriend about the progress of your team. It almost is a relief to finally say, “enough.”

And then you look at the faces of the fans in St. Petersburg and Tampa Bay. You see this incredible joy and victory of the folks wearing Bartlett and Longoria jerseys and jumping up and down and pointing “We’re Number 1!” fingers in the air. You watch the puppy dog pile and note that the players in Tampa are all really young, so they jump higher and with more abandon than a David Ortiz or a Jason Varitek might. You watch the dozens and dozens of champagne bottles get shook and sprayed in the air and over the heads of players and misting the lens of the cameras in the locker room. Then you watch the camera pan to the Red Sox dugout where the disappointment is quiet and deep and palpable. You know that somewhere, someone is destroying all those boxes of pre-printed tee-shirts and caps that proclaimed the Red Sox as the American League champions. And you wish that it was you who were celebrating.

We still have the Series ahead, so baseball isn’t dead yet. But I’ll also be starting to look forward to next year’s season. And that, dear girlfriend, is as American as baseball, apple pie and Mom.

It Ain’t Over ‘Til It’s Over

Girlfriend, I hope that some day you have the experience of waking up in the morning and immediately thinking, “Where’s the sports page?”

That’s what happened to me on this morning. Last night, the Boston Red Sox were obviously on their way to being eliminated by a young, vigorous and well playing Tampa Rays team. It was 7 to 0 in the seventh inning, for heaven’s sake, and even The Boyfriend turned off the television in disgust. (It is sometimes better for your health if your team doesn’t make it into the playoffs. You can just relax and enjoy the games in a detached, appreciative manner instead of being bi-polar for an additional three weeks.)

Anyway, he left the game and I was out with a friend and came home about the time he checked the internet for “the final score”. There was a shout and a yell, “It’s 7-6, we gotta watch the game.” We stampeded to the couch.

And the Red Sox did it. They came from 7 runs behind and in the last three innings, scored 8 runs and earned another chance, another sweaty-heart-pounding-bipolar-episode for the fans. Coco Crisp tied it up with a 10-pitch at bat resulting in one run RBI and JD Drew hit an RBI walk off single to win the game in the bottom of the ninth. Then it was just a bunch of joyous-silly-jumping-up-and-down-puppy-like boys on the field, thrilled that they pulled off the impossible. They haven’t won the series and they are still behind two games, but one of the best parts of baseball is when the team you are rooting for pulls it off even though they should have lost.

Sports fans of all kinds know this feeling. This is not particular to baseball. But what does seem to be unique is the rapidity of how things can change. In soccer, players score one goal at a time. But in baseball, a player’s at bat can jump the score anywhere between one run to four runs in a single bat, So even when the game plods for several innings, things can change quickly. It ain’t easy. There wasn’t a Red Sox fan in Fenway at the beginning of the seventh inning that thought his or her team was going to win last night. A bunch of them headed home because it was late and they wanted to beat traffic. But suddenly there was a wave of good hitting and missed fielding that resulted in the crowd being back in the game again. And despite a gloomy first six innings, heck, here came the Red Sox coming from behind for the largest playoff comeback since 1929 (where the Phillies over came an 8-0 deficit against the Cubs.). This is what you pray for when you watch your team but never believe it will happen. Last night, it happened.

That’s what is so great about baseball. It really ain’t over ‘til it’s over. And it still ain’t over. Boston and Tampa meet again on Saturday and Tampa leads the series 3-2. But it still reminds me that baseball is a great game, filled with uneventful innings and soaring moments. And you reach for the sports page in the morning to relieve the impossibility and to understand what you really saw.

Who's On First?

You may have never seen this famous baseball skit or you may have memorized the entire thing, but it still is one of the best comedy sketches about baseball that ever was written. If you want to know baseball, you have to be familar with the "Who's on First?" sketch by Abbott and Costello. I've included the video here for you viewing pleasure and a link to the script just for fun. It has definitely has withstood the test of time!

Here's a link to The Video: "Who's On First?"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sShMA85pv8M

Here's a link to The Script: "Who's On First?"
http://www.baseball-almanac.com/humor4.shtml

Songs of the Season

For me, one of the delights of the post season games (especially in the World Series) is hearing the Star Spangled Banner played at the beginning of the game. It’s not a secret that one of my biggest desires and most impossible dreams is to sing the Star Spangled Banner before a baseball game. That probably won’t happen in my lifetime, but I always enjoy hearing other folks take it on as part of the baseball season. There’s been a trend in the last twenty years to spice it up a bit and put a pop feel to it. Some people hate that trend. They feel it is disrepectful. (For example, look up "disrepectful" in the baseball dictionary and you’ll find a picture of Roseanne Barr singing the Star Spangled Banner back in 1990. God awful!) But I like the trend. It inspires me.

I’ve been thinking about the songs of baseball games. Some teams, like the Red Sox, have their own song tradition (Neil Diamond's Sweet Caroline before the bottom of the eighth inning) but almost all teams share the tradition of three songs played during the game.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Take Me Out to the Ball Game was written in 1908 and is the unofficial anthem of baseball. The words were written in 1908 by Jack Norworth (who also wrote Shine On Harvest Moon) who while riding a subway train, was inspired by a sign that said "Baseball Today — Polo Grounds". The song is traditionally sung during the seventh-inning stretch of a baseball game and tradition has it that fans sing along. What’s fun about this song is that it was originally written for a woman to sing as part of a duet. Baseball in the early century was seen more as a male pasttime, and this song is from the perspective of a woman who wants her date to take her to a baseball game instead of a theater show. See, even early on, girlfriends dug baseball!

Chicago’s Wrigley Field has taken this song a step further and currently invite a guest conductor to lead the crowd. This happens elsewhere, too. I saw Marian Ross (Mrs Cunningham from the Happy Days series) leading the crowd in Kansas City when they played against the Mariners in September. It is said “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” is the third most-often-played song in the United States, after "The Star-Spangled Banner" and "Happy Birthday to You".

There are verses to it as well but nobody ever sings them at a baseball game. However, in Ken Burns documentary series on baseball, Carly Simon sings the verses and pops it up a bit. (Nothing says "old-time" baseball like a tenor banjo!) Here’s a link to that version and a version with versus by the Andrew Sisters and Dan Dailey:

http://skyking162.com/2006/05/take-me-out-to-the-ball-game-mp3/

The fame of the song needs to be laid at the feet of Bill Veeck and Harry Caray of Chicago Fame. Hall of Fame sportscaster Harry Caray, was well known for leading the crowd in a singing of Take Me Out to the Ball Game by leaning out the window of his broadcasting booth and leading the crowd in the song. He started the tradition with the Chicago White Sox, but when he moved over to Wrigley Field, it really becames a Cubs tradition.

When Caray missed a number of games due to a stroke later in his career , "guest conductors" (including once a very drunk Bill Murray) did the honors and continued to be a tradition after Caray's death. If a game goes to the 14th inning at Wrigley Field, they will sing the song again.

Coincidentally, the year the song was written (1908) is the last year the Cubs won the World Series. A good omen?

To read even more about his song, go to this article from the Baseball Hall of Fame.

http://web.baseballhalloffame.org/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080505&content_id=7228&vkey=hof_news

God Bless America

God Bless America was written by Irving Berlin in 1918 and revised in 1938 to be sung and made famous by Kate Smith. When you think of Kate Smith, you think of God Bless America (On the other hand, how often do yo think of Kate Smith?) Woody Guthrie wrote his song This Land Is Your Land in response.

It started out being played before the home games of the Philadelphia Flyers Hockey Team but started becoming part of baseball after the 9/11 Attacks against New York and the World Trade Towers. It replaced Take Me out to the Ball Game during the 7th inning Stretch in many ball parks for a while. Yankee Stadium is the only Major League ballpark to continue to play "God Bless America" in every game during the seventh-inning stretch. Tenor Ronan Tynan is a favorite at Yankee Stadium and usually tapped to sing it during all the including all playoff games. Well, not this year.

http://www.geocities.com/god_bless_america_lyrics/

The Star Spangled Banner

The Star-Spangled Banner is, of course, our national anthem. The lyrics come from a poem written in 1814 by Francis Scott Key who wrote "Defence of Fort McHenry" after seeing the bombardment of Fort McHenry during the War of 1812. The poem was set to the tune of a popular British drinking song and eventually became our National Anthem in 1931 during prohibition under Herbert Hoover. (A bit of irony, isn’t it?) With a range of one-and-a-half octaves, it is a bear for most people to sing and everyone muffs up the words (which I think is a perfect kind of national anthem the noisy, messy democracy we are.) We usually only sing one verse because that’s hard enough to remember itself.

According to Wikipedia, the playing of the song during the seventh-inning stretch of the 1918 World Series is often noted as the first instance that the anthem was played at a baseball game, but evidence shows that the "Star-Spangled Banner" was performed as early as 1897 at opening day ceremonies in Philadelphia and then more regularly at the Polo Grounds in New York City beginning in 1898. However, the tradition of performing the national anthem before every baseball game began in World War II.


The Star Spangled Banner used to be a pretty dry affair, usually with a high school chorus or an operatic singer or more likely a recording during which everyone took off their baseball caps and mumbled along. But things started charging up in 1968 when guitarist Jose Feliciano played it slow and bluesy before a crowd before Game Five of the 1968 World Series between Detroit and St. Louis. It was controversial at the time to sing an “interpretation” , but now, all bets are off. There are now countless different versions, interpretations and styles of the song. In fact, it has become a challenge to make your own unique interpretation. I believe that Aretha Franklin is the queen in this area (you go, girlfriend!) but most fans have their favorites. I’d love to hear a Zydeco version someday with a sassy accordion and banging rubboard. Maybe when I get to sing it, I’ll get Rosie Ledet and the Zydeco Playboys to back me up.

I know it’s impossible to sing for most people. I know some of the renditions of the song out there are truly horrible. I know that even professionals mess up the words. But there is something about those opening notes that’s just scream “play ball.”

I wish I had a recording to share you from the Queen of Soul from a baseball game. But I did find this great version from the 1996 Democratic Convention. Enjoy! And, Play Ball!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jhyxr6gP3eo&feature=related

The Changing of the Seasons

There is crispness in the air, and here in Alaska, we are already looking at reports of frost, snow creeping down the mountains, and autumn colors that are past their peak and laying on the ground. The regular baseball season has come to an end. Post season is a separate season of its own, it seems. It seems many people wait out the baseball season to let the teams sort themselves out and watch with more interest and intensity during the post season. It’s the best of the best baseball and of course, culminates in the World Series. So it’s a shot in the arm at a time you are mourning the passing of another baseball season.

But what a season it has been! This year, my cable company promoted the fact that they were going to be showing every Mariners game on Channel 36 which is the Northwest Sports Channel. I looked forward to really getting to know the team and watching a lot of baseball. The Mariners were favored to win the Western AL Division at the beginning of the season and I was having flashbacks to the great Mariner teams of the early decade with Bret Boone and Jay Buhner and Mike Cameron and Jamie Moyer and of course, Edgar Martinez. Yikes! The Mariners ended this season with the worst record in both leagues. They lost over a 100 games in a 162 game series. What happened, boys? Every once in awhile the team shows a flash of great ball, with Adrian Beltre third base saves and Raul Ibanez hitting and Ichiro has still got it for his funky hit and run fast lead off hits, but overall, something went terribly wrong.

And whoever saw the Devil Rays (now the Tampa Rays) coming? This team has never had a winning season since their beginning and they ended up winning the toughest Division in the American League, beating out both the mighty Yankees and the Red Sox. And the Yankees not in the post season? And Joe Torre in the post season, but this time with Los Angeles? Along with Manny Ramirez? Who would have guessed? What a season this has been.!

So after 162 games, maybe it’s time to let this season go. Now it’s time to focus on the post season.

I’m going back to the Midwest to visit family and my mom and nieces and nephews in early October, so I’m looking forward to spending time with family. But I have to say my timing is lousy. I’m going back to Green Bay Packer country during a week where the Atlanta Falcons are playing in Green Bay. That doesn’t mean anything to anyone living anywhere else, but in Northeastern Wisconsin, it means that traffic stops, people make up a tray of cocktail wieners and stay home huddled in front of the television. My mom starts watching all the sports talk shows the week before. (Well, really she has them on in the background and won’t let you change the channel.)

My problem is, it is also Baseball Weekend. There are going to be eight games I could be watching. But there is a Packer game on the television. I face the gruesome specter of wrestling my mother for the television remote. And she’s pretty feisty so I wouldn’t be betting on whose going to win.

I did get her to agree to go see a game with me during the weekend. It was touch and go for a while but the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Chicago Cubs on Sunday and the New York Mets lost their last game, so the Brew Crew is going to be in the Post Season for the first time since 1982. My mom has a good adventurous spirit, so she’s agreed to come with me. We’ll find a good sports bar, order up a couple Miller Genuine Drafts, and a basket of deep fried cheese curds, invite the brothers and cheer for the Brewers (maybe I could also convince her to watch the Red Sox game? I better get Sister Turned Red Sox Fanatic to call during cocktail hour!)

Despite being a MOFF, my mom is totally up for it. I was thrilled when she said almost apologetically over the phone, “I really don’t know much about baseball. I hope I don’t say anything stupid.”

No worries, girlfriend., You are watching baseball with the right person.

Sliding, Stealing and Bruising

There’s a great Gatorade commercial featuring movie gangster actor Harvey Keitel and Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees. Keitel is standing behind Derek Jeter at first base during a game whispering in his ear to steal second. “Go ahead and take it.” He nods at the pitcher, “That one keeps looking over here,” and then nodding at the catcher, “and that one has a gun. But you got to do what you got to do.” Jeter takes off like a rocket and slides head first into second and conquers the base. Keitel nods his head approvingly, “Ah, stealing. It’s a beautiful thing.”

I’m not sure how that sells Gatorade but it drives home the point that if a batter get on base, a whole ‘nother kind of game starts. What are you supposed to do then? RUN FORREST RUN! Let’s talk about baserunning. Which also means talking about stealing. And sliding.

One of saddest stats in baseball is LOB. That stands for Left On Base. Left on base is potential that didn’t go any place. A batter who gets on base, but dies there with the third out. Like those talented kids in high school you think are going to go far, but end up with a drug habit, drop out of college and now work at the Holiday Gas Station.

Baseball is made up of individual accomplishments but it is solidly a team sport. If the pitcher can’t get that ball across the plate without it being hit, then he hopes a fielder will get the out. If a runner gets to first, he hopes that the next batter can get him home or at least into scoring position. Second and Third bases are scoring positions, because if a batter gets a hit, a runner can usually make it home from those bases or a sacrifice fly will help the runner advance and bring him closer to home. Either way, you ain’t going nowhere unless the guy behind you does his stuff.

Generally, a player gets on base by hitting a fair ball, being walked ( four balls from the pitcher), or by being hit by a pitch. After that, his goal is to touch all the bases and get home for the run. The defensive team is not going to make that easy. Baserunners can attempt to run anytime the ball is live or as the pitcher is throwing a pitch. You’ve seen how they stand out a couple feet between themselves and first base? That’s called leading off. That gives them a little extra juice to get to second base. Pitchers get all snarky about that because sometimes that lead off turns into a steal. But when he is leading off, the runner is also off the base. And if he can be touched with the ball when off the base, he’s out. So the pitcher tries a pick off attempt. That means he throws the ball back to first unexpectedly in order for the first baseman to tag the runner before he gets back to base. So sweeeeet when it happens! But it rarely happens. Really the pitcher is just trying to hold the runner a little closer to base to lessen his chances of making it to scoring position. If he is tagged out trying to get back to first, it is called a pickoff. If the runner takes off and tries for second as the pitcher throws, the catcher will throw to second in hopes that the second baseman will be able to tag him before he reaches second. If he is out, it is scored caught stealing. If he makes it, it is scored a stolen base.

If the game is at a point where it doesn’t really matter if the runner takes second, sometimes the defense won’t even try to get him out. Big deal, they seem to say as they shrug their collective shoulders. So you’ve been talking to Harvey Keitel. Then it is called defensive indifference. You don’t get to count that as a stolen base in your stats, because the other team didn’t even try. Defensive Indifference—describes a couple of encounters I’ve had recently…..

Stealing describes when a baserunner advances to another base while the pitcher is pitching the ball. Now a pitcher can’t fake a pitch to get the runner to take off then throw it to first, like a sneak pass in football. That’s called a balk and that’s not acceptable. But up until a certain point in his delivery of a pitch, the pitcher can throw it to a base. So pitchers are watching runners (and so are third base coaches and catchers and signaling to the pitcher) and baserunners and the third base coach are watching pitchers (is he lifting his right heel or his left heel? Is he a right handed pitcher or a left handed pitcher?)

Not every runner is a stealing candidate. David Ortiz, bless his heart and his big booming bat, is not the best base stealer because he is, ummm, well how you say, big boned and slow. Now Coco Crisp and Jacoby Ellsbury of the Red Sox are known base stealers because they are little fast and hungry. That’s the combo you want to be looking for.

Because second base is the farthest from the catcher, it is the base that is most often stolen. Third base isn’t so easy, because it is closer to the catcher. There’s some old baseball wisdom that says you should never make the third out stealing third base. You better have sure thing if you are stealing third, because if you are on second in scoring position, it is better to give the batter up an opportunity to score.

When the count is full and there are two outs, runners with someone on the base behind them will always take off running as if they were stealing on the pitch. If the ball is hit foul, they get to go back to their base. If the ball is a strike, they have to head to the dugout anyway. And it the ball is hit, they should try to get as big a leap as they possibly can. You may hear this called as “runners go”.

And when a runner gets to the base they want, what do they do? Slide, baby, slide! Well, unless there is no reason to. Most players run standing up into first because you can overrun first and still be safe as long as you touched the base before the first baseman did. But it ain’t necessarily so on second or third base. If you run past it, the baseman can still tag you out. So you slide, feet or hands extended, using momentum to throw your body forward. Of course, once you touch home, you score. But you first got to get past that big catcher blocking the plate

Advantages of sliding? First, you have a better chance of staying near and on the base. Second, you are a more difficult target close to the ground. You have a better chance of getting a body part on the base before Mr. Baseman is able to lean down and tag you. Thirdly, if it looks like you are going to be out, you can throw yourself in a way that makes it harder for Mr. Baseman to stay upright long enough to throw to another base to get your buddy behind you out. It is said that during the 20’s Ty Cobb used to sharpen his baseball cleats in view of the opposing team in case anyone had any bright ideas of blocking his way. He has seasons where he stole nearly 100 bases.

When you steal, it is advised you throw your feet first, because let’s face it, people get hurt. Fingers gets pulled back, necks get snapped and noses get broken when a face collides with a base. Check out the runners at first. Often you will see the runners hold their batting gloves in their hands. That is a reminder to them to keep their hands closed when they are running and protecting those thousand dollar fingers. Sometimes you’ll see people dive instead of slide, but you can imagine that they get a friendly memo from the owner after the game.

I've seen The Boyfriend on several occasions dive head first into second during a friendly game of pick up softball, paralleling the ground with a look of hunger in his eye. In one of those games he had a container of Carmex lip balm in his pocket, and by the end of the night he had a circular black bruise kissing his hip bone. Sliding is not for the weak of heart (or for anyone with stuff in his jeans pocket).

Understanding the Infield Fly Rule

When I first started dating The Boyfriend, I started hearing about Baseball Weekend. Baseball Weekend was usually held the first weekend in October at the beginning of the post-season playoffs when you could conceivably watch two games on Friday night, four games on Saturday and another two on Sunday. Baseball fans only need apply and the entrance exam into the weekend was that you needed to be able to define the infield fly rule.

Say what?

You had to be able to understand one of those odd rules in baseball that don’t seem to make much sense but demonstrates that you have a good enough grasp of the subtleties of the games that you wouldn’t be asking dumb questions during the game.

Well, I flubbed my way through that first Baseball Weekend. The Boyfriend coached me, but to be honest, the Infield Fly Rule made no sense to me. I have gone on to enjoy many more Baseball Weekends, but “understanding the infield fly rule” has become a code word for the complexities of baseball. Or knowing the secret password to join the club.

Defensive baseball refers to when your team is not up to bat but is trying to prevent the other team from scoring. The infield takes care of the ball when the ball comes into the infield and the outfield takes care of the ball when it goes into the outfield. The Infield Fly Rule prevents the manipulation of the baseball rules (yes, like accountants, baseball players sometimes take advantage of loopholes).

So here it is: If, with runners on first and second base or with the bases loaded, a high fly ball is hit in or around the infield and it looks like it can easily caught be by an infielder, the umpire will call the batter out before the ball is actually caught. That seems like it favors the defense. I mean what if the guy doesn’t catch it or drops it?

Exactly.

The Infield Fly Rule actually to protects the offense from the old “ooops, look, I dropped it. Now I can pick it up and throw it to third and then to either first or second and get the double play” or the more outright “let it drop to the ground, pick up the live ball and throw it to third base." So let’s go through that again. If the infielder catches the ball and drops it (or lets it fall to the ground before picking it up) the ball is still live and the batter has to run to first, which forces players on first and second to run to the next base. So an infielder can easily throw the ball to third and get that runner out, and still have time to throw to either second or first to get a double play. Why wouldn’t you do that? It is an easy two outs.

So the infield fly rule says that if you should be able to easily catch a fair ball in the infield, the base umpire calls it an “infield fly if fair” while it is still in the air, pointing his right arm to the sky. Of course, if it flies “foul” or outside of the foul lines but is still in the park, and a player catches it, it is an out. The infield fly rule really is to the benefit of the offense, because it means just one out is charged to the offensive team instead of the possible two.

The infield fly rule can only be applied when there are runners on first and second bases or the bases loaded, there are less than two outs, and a high fly ball is hit (not a bunt or line drive) that can be caught by an infielder with reasonable effort.

Got it? If there are runners on first and second or all, an infield pop-up with less than two outs is an automatic out.

Cool! See you at Baseball Weekend, girlfriend! Bring that really good seven layer dip recipe you make.

Playing in the Outfield

We’ve been hanging out around home plate and on the pitcher’s mound, but I think it is time, girlfriend, to take a little field trip. Let’s look at what is happening out in the outfield. It always seemed like the easiest place to play when compared to the catcher (crouching down for the whole game) or the pitcher (pitching every inning). Outfielders can actually go innings without having to catch a ball or throw toward base. All in all, it seems like a kick-back, enjoy the grass position, and maybe excuse yourself to use the bathrooms on the outside wall, like Manny Ramirez did back when he was playing left field for the Red Sox.

But, my little carousel cooked hot dog, looks are deceiving. Like many things in baseball, what looks to be a non-happening part of the game actually has a lot going on.

There are three outfield positions—right, center and left. The outfield is that area between the running track and the back wall. There’s a lot of grass to cover. Outfielders are often 250 to 300 feet from homeplate, and they have to be ready to cover large distances and be able to throw long distances with deadly accuracy. Outfielders also have to have good instincts. Batters are not trying to hit the ball to the outfielder. They are trying to hit the ball between or beyond the outfielders because they want to make it to base. So outfielders need to go where the ball is. To be a good fielder, players need to be able to judge where the ball is going to go based on the pitch and the batter’s tendencies; need to be able to catch over their head running toward the fence; able to run up on the ball; ability to see the ball falling out of the sky; and ability to fly through the air with one of those spine chilling flights parallel to the ground with glove extended. They also need to be able to jump up high against the back wall and pluck that baby out of the air to rob the batter of a glorious hit. Right Fielder Ichiro Suzuki is famous for climbing the back wall like Spiderman in order to prevent a ball from leaving the park.

Now different people have different opinions about fielders. (Really, in baseball? People have strong opinions?) Some people feel the right fielder needs the strongest arm because he is the farthest from third base, while some people feel the center fielder needs the strongest arm because he tends to field more balls. The left fielder often has the weakest arm of the three, but he still needs some chops. Remember that for the most part (American League pitchers and designated hitters excepted) baseball players play both offense (batting) and defense (pitching, catching and fielding). Being a great hitter is not enough. You have to do both.

The center fielder needs the best combination of speed and throwing distance. Because he covers the most territory, he catches a high percentage of the fly balls. The center fielder also has a role in coordinating the outfield when there is some question about who is going to catch the ball. (This is to avoid those head cracking collisions we talked about in Blood and Guts. )

But the outfield does more than just wait in their own special corner of the world to catch fly balls. Outfielders cover the area back of the bases when plays are in the infield. For example, the center fielder backs up second base in situations such as when a runner tries to steal second base, and the catcher throws to second. The center fielder moves forward to back up the second baseman in case he misses the catch or there is a bad throw.

The right fielders back up first base (including bunts) for balls hit to the right side or for throws from the catcher. The right fielder also backs up second base for balls hit to the left side of the field. Right fielders need a good eye because a ball hit to right field has a tendency to curve toward the foul line and right fielders have to adjust.

The left field backs up third base for throws from the catcher or pitcher. I recently saw a great move by Jason Bay, the player who replaced Manny Ramirez in the left field for the Boston Red Sox. Mike Lowe missed a poorly thrown ball to third and out of nowhere comes Bay on the crowd side of the foul line to field the ball and prevent any additional bases. Even the announcers were impressed and joked that Manny would have never done that. Manny, being Manny, didn’t move for no one. Though in Manny’s defense, he did pull off a great catch of a ball back in May before it went into the stand, ran up the back wall, high-fived a fan and got the ball back in time to Dustin Pedroia to get a double play. Manny definitely had entertainment value. Here is a link to that video if you haven’t seen it.


http://soxanddawgs.com/?p=4240

Some of the different ball fields present a challenge to fielders as well. The infamous left field wall at Fenway was built because the ballpark didn’t have enough room for a traditional left field, so Fenway built it higher than normal. The “Green Monster” is a bear for fielders when the ball bounces off that back. Other outfields as well have crooks, nannies and some nasty little corners. Infields are standard throughout the leagues, but there are slight variations in ball parks when it comes to the outfields. So in Cleveland, both the back right and left field walls measure 325 feet and 410 feet at center field. But in funky Fenway Park, the left field wall is 310 (but that’s where the Green Monster is) and the right field foul pole is 302 feet out, but center field is a mighty 420 at its farthest distance from home plate. Fielders must adjust to the different parks, and they hate it when a fair ball goes into the corner. If a ball bounces fair on the field but then bounces out of the park, it is an automatic double.

The outfield may not always be the most exciting place in the world, but there’s no sleeping out in the outfield. Your glory catch --the one where you throw yourself like a rocket through the air four feet above the ground, grab for the ball, belly flop on the ground then somersault three times, then flip to your feet with the ball snow-coned in your glove raised to the crowd in victory with the television announcer shouting, “I don’t believe it!” as the station replays the catch over and over again—is just around the corner. I think outfielders must live for that day. And then they live for first dibs in the hot-tub back at the clubhouse.

Tics and Gods and Rituals

I often thought if a psychologist watched a baseball game with a professional eye, that he or she could make a number of mental health diagnoses. For example, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (for the rituals right before batting), Paranoid Schizophrenia (for the pitcher who throws a little chin music to “discourage” the batter from crowding the plate.) Bipolar Disorder (for the crowd who swings from euphoria in the first inning to bone weary depression in the last inning if they lose.) Tourette’s Syndrome (for the physical tics of the like of Jonathon Papelbom and the explosive swearing to oneself that happens as someone is caught looking on the third strike), Repetitive Self Stimulating Behavior (such as the kind we used to see with Don Zimmer’s rocking back and forth on the bench with Joe Torre and the Yankees) and Oppositional Defiant Disorder (for the manager who gets into the face of the umpire even though it was obvious that his runner was clearly tagged out at second and clearly the ump is not going to change the call.)

But then I thought the doc would probably get caught up in the excitement of the game, start rooting for the home team, start marking a score card instead of a prescription pad, and write off all the quirks, obsessions, ticks, rituals, and superstition as “oh well, that’s just part of the game.”

And you know, it is part of the game. Baseball, with all of its speed guns, computerized statistics, modern stadiums, sophisticated training, and now, instant replay, is home to more superstitions, rituals and prayers to the many different gods who watch over us than any other event, except maybe the upcoming presidential race.

There are some general superstitions that apply to everyone in baseball, such as not stepping on the foul lines when leaving or entering the field. Watch, you’ll see players jumping over the line. Even when the manager heads out to the mound to relieve a pitcher from his duties, he won’t step on the line. There is the widely held superstition that if a pitcher is pitching no-hitter, you don’t mention it for fear of jinxing it. I practiced this one myself when Brandon Morrow of the Mariners pitched 7 1/3 innings of no hits last week against the Yankees. You can bet there were many fans with Bronx accents shouting it from the nosebleed section for exactly the same reason, but for a nefarious purpose.

Most of the really interesting superstitions and rituals though happen on an individual basis. Power hitter David Ortiz of the Boston Red Sox participates in the same ritual of going through a regular routine of prepping himself for the bat which includes a predictable slapping together of this batting gloves twice before getting ready to bat. Ichiro Suzuki of the Mariners has a very distinctive, almost tai chi kind of ritual where he squats down as if loosening his hamstrings before he gets to an at bat. Then at bat he circles his bat over his head a couple times then lines it up somewhere with the back wall and pulls up his sleeve. He holds that position until the pitcher gets into his stance, then positions himself to bat Nomar Garciapparra is the king of ticks and rituals and used to take 20 seconds to do all his touching and pointing of toes and checking of gloves.

Keep in mind, this is not just before an at-bat. This is every time right before ball is pitched. Since there is no time clock in baseball, each player has the time to go through his ritual unless he is unduly delaying the game. Those of you who are MOFFs (More of a Football Fan), when was the last time you saw a football quarterback take off his helmet, turn it around three times and place it back on his head and then slap the butt of the center snapping the ball each time before calling a play?

What does it all mean, doc? Do you think this is healthy? Where did he go? The fan next to the empty seat informs me he went to get a nacho boat and a Miller Genuine Draft from the Full Count Snack Bar. He said to fill in his scorecard as needed so he wouldn’t miss anything.

Baseball is a team sport. Baseball is a modern sport. Baseball depends on percentages, speed, science. But every time a batter presents him or her self at the plate, whether it be Major League, city league softball, or Little League, it is the batter alone that has to make something happen. Every time the pitcher set into pitching positions, it is basically just him or her to deliver that ball the way the catcher called it. And sometimes the magic works, and sometimes it seems to have left the building. So players look for any edge they can get. If you had a really, really good game wearing a certain tee shirt under your baseball jersey, then you try to recreate the luck by wearing it again even if it is ripped, torn or smelly from the last really good game.

Wade Boggs, third baseman for the Boston Red Sox in the Eighties and Nineties, was well known (and teased) about his superstition of eating chicken before every game. His wife had over 200 recipes for the stuff. Movies make fun of the superstitious nature of baseball players all the time. In the movie Major League, one of the players had a full blown voodoo temple in his locker to JABU. In Bull Durham, pitcher Nuke Laroosh wore black garters under his uniform during a winning streak and the first baseman blessed his bat with chicken bones.

Many religious players, especially the Catholic players from Hispanic Countries, make the Sign of the Cross before a bat or a prayer of thanks after a great play or a run or kiss their medal of Our Mother of Guadalupe or St, Rita of Cascia. St. Rita has been fairly recently dubbed the patron saint of baseball players, but she is originally the patron saint of the abused and of hopeless causes. (If that doesn’t describe the Mariners season this year…St Rita pray for us in 2009...)

Don’t scoff at the players though for being silly. You know you the fan are doing it, too. Whether you are watching a league softball game or a Major League Baseball Game. Look around you and you can see dozens or even hundreds of people with their hands clasped, praying that that pitch will scream right down the center of the plate and the batter from the enemy team will swing powerlessly over the top of it. Or during that 4-1 game that your team is losing in the bottom of the ninth, if bases are loaded, and the bottom of the order comes up to bat, you really think that if you pray hard enough and send enough good vibes to the batter, the skinny guy with a .190 batting average is going to hit a grand slam and win the game in rapture filled triumph.

What about John Adams, the Cleveland Indians fan who brings a drum to every home game and beats it continuously throughout the game just like he has done for two decades? I bet he really thinks that if he doesn’t come, the Indians are going to tank. (In deference to The Baseball Buddy, I’ll make no comment on the effectiveness of that tactic.) Or the phenomenon of rally caps, where the crowd puts their hats on backwards in hopes of rallying their team in the last innings of the game.

We all have our own tics and gods and rituals we bring to the ball park. Because miracles do happen. Sometimes, the littlest guy on the team really does hit that homerun and wins the game after we just sent up a heart felt prayer of “Please God, please!”

Our psychologist friend, fresh back from checking out the Ichiro Sushi Plate from the Hit it Here Café, (“Do you want my pickled ginger?” he asks) says we have been “intermittently reinforced” which is the strongest kind of reinforcement there is. In translation it means, “every once in awhile, it works.” So we do it again, and maybe again, and then we can’t stop doing it because every once in awhile, it works.

Yeah, I’ll take your pickled ginger, doc. And St. Rita, pray for us. Sometimes I think we baseball fans are just plain crazy.

Keepin’ Score

I’ve been keeping an eye on the Milwaukee Brewers this last half of the season because I used to go to school in Milwaukee when I was a MOFF. Even though I’ve only seen one game in the old County Stadium and one in the fabulous newly built Miller stadium, I do have a soft spot for the Brew Crew and it looks like they might be going to the post season, battling against Steve’s Wonder Cubs.

So there’s a controversy fermenting (sorry for the pun) over a game played on last weekend where CC Sabathia (Cy Young winner last year for the American League) was pitching a no hitter and the ball came back at him. According to the Associated Press, Sabathia picked the ball up barehanded only to drop it. The runner made it to first base. Hit, you say? That’s what the official scorer said and credited a hit to the runner. Pitcher error, you say? That what the entire Milwaukee Brewers team saw and the team thinks their pitcher was robbed of a no-hitter. Now a one hitter is nothing to sneeze at and CC seemed to take it in stride. But it bring us to the question, who decides what is written in the official records?

It is someone the fan never sees. You probably won’t recognize his or her name either. According to the MLB Office Baseball Rules, “The league president shall appoint an official scorer for each game…The scorer shall have sole authority to make all decision involving judgment such as whether a batter’s advance to first base is the result of a hit or an error.”

Remember, in baseball, a hit has to be earned. Not that you are any less real, living and breathing flesh and blood on first base ready to make your way to home plate and the run you make is any less of a number on the scoreboard, but at the end of the day, in the box score, if you didn’t earn the hit, you don’t get the hit in your column. And if the hit is not in your column, it’s not in your lifetime stats.

And that is the importance and the power of the baseball scorer. He or she does not change the outcome of the game in any way. He or she does not decide balls and strikes like the umpire. One writer said that “about 90% of all calls can be made by most people. The official scorer is hired to make the other 10% of the calls.”

But there are a lot of baseball stats that basically come down to someone deciding who gets the credit and who gets the blame. Believe it or not, most people aren’t very objective about their teams. (I’m talking about you, Softball Diva and Terminal Yankees Fan and you, Sister Turned Red Sox Fanatic.) So there needs to be someone who knows baseball like the back of his/her hand and is also totally familiar with the MLB Official Baseball Rules. These are the most common stats determined by the official scorer that you should be familiar with.

Error: Errors are fielding mistakes that benefit the offense. (Example: the shortstop goes down to pick up the ball and bobbles it. Runner from first makes it to second though if the shortstop had not bobbled the ball, he could have thrown it in time to second to get the runner out. An error is scored against the shortstop.)

Fielders Choice: Describes a situation in which a fielder decides to make play other that to put out a batter running to first base. (Example: same shortstop gets the ball and chooses to throw it to second to get the runner from first. The shortstop could throw it to first and easily get the batter out, but throws it to second instead to stop the runner on first from getting into scoring position. A hit is not scored for the batter because he could have just as easily been thrown out.)

Assist : Given to a fielder who fields the ball prior to a put out, which means another fielder does something to cause the batter or runner to be out.

Runs Batted In: the number of runs that are scored due to a batter’s performance.

Hits: This is the big one. Did the runner hit the ball in a way that got him on base safely without his achievement being credited to the opposing team making a mistake? Meaning, no errors, no fielders choice.

Passed ball: A pitch missed by the catcher that he should have caught and results in a runner advancing or even scoring

Wild pitch: A pitch thrown too high, low or side to be caught by the catcher, again allowing a runner to advance.

Just like the umpire, the scorer has to keep an eye on the ball but they have to be watching everybody else as well. In a regular MLB game there is just one scorer. Back in the old days, when reporters were really the only ones interested in scores, a member of the press was appointed to be the official scorer. But with so much riding on scores (such as league play, individual lifetime stats that determine salary and Hall of Fame consideration) the League started appointing an official scorer in 1980 for each game to promote objectivity. Usually it is someone picked by the home team but paid by the MLB. In the World Series there is a panel of three (one scorer and two writers.) And right now the Milwaukee Brewers’ manager is promoting that idea for regular games too.

So keep in mind, if you are watching a game live or watching a game on television and you hear the announcer say, “let’s see how they score that one,” the they means some person who is appointed, who know something about the game and who is willing to take some abuse but gets no public recognition except at the very bottom of the baseball box scores.