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.

Baseball Names You Should Know, Part Two

We continue with our list of some of the Baseball Names You Should Know Because People Often Mention Their Names as A Comparison And You Don’t Want to Look Stupid Asking Who They Are. I know that many of you have others. Write a comment at the end and I’ll post ‘em. Remember, these are not necessarily the greatest baseball players who every lived, but names who are mentioned often when talking about baseball history.

8. Nolan Ryan is one of my all-time favorites pitchers, though he retired before I really started watching baseball. He is best known for playing for the Texas Rangers and is best known for his record of being the all time leader in no hitters (seven!) and tied for first for one-hitters with 12 and another 18 two hitters. He threw fast balls that regularly went above 100 mph and he had a mean knuckleball. He pitched well into his forties, and was know as The Ryan Express. He had 5,714 career strikeouts. He also had 2,795 walks in his career, but hey, you got to throw a lot of balls to get a lot of strikes. He has been a spokesperson for Alleve pain medication, and I trust a man to know about pain relief when he has a pitching career like that.

9. Roberto Clemente was the first Latin American to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame and the only modern Hall of Famer for whom the mandatory five year waiting period was waived. That’s because he was elected posthumously in 1973 after being lost in an airplane crash while delivering supplies and aid to Nicaraguan earthquake victims. He was a native of Puerto Rico and was knows for his generousity and his charity work in his native country and other Latin American countries. He played his entire 19 season in the Major League Baseball with the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1955 to 1972 and was an All Star for 12 of those seasons. He won 12 Gold Glove Awards (tying with fellow outfielder Willie Mays) and was elected to the All Time Gold Glove Team at the All Star Game in 2007 (joining fellow outfielders Willie Mays and Ken Griffey, Jr.)

10. Joe DiMaggio Joe had the ultimate girlfriend and married her (Marilyn Monroe) and at one point when playing with the Yankees, he was roommates with pitcher Joe Page (another bad boy in the forties and here again in the new century.) And he's mentioned in the Simon and Garfunkel song "Mrs. Robinson." But that’s just baseball trivia. Joe DiMaggio played his entire career from 1936 to 1951 for the New York Yankees as a center fielder. DiMaggio was a 3-time MVP winner and played 13 times in the All Star game, he is also the only player in baseball history to be selected for the All-Star Game in every season he played. DiMaggio achieved a 56-game hitting streak during 1941 that has been called baseball's most mythic achievement. After going hitless for one game, DiMaggio hit in the next 16 consecutive games, for a total of 72 out of 73. He earned .325 lifetime batting average and the New York Yankees retired his number 5.

11. Satchel Paige was an African American pitcher who played with too many teams to list here but who was a legendary pitcher. He played for dozens of different Negro League Teams as well as in the Mexican and Dominican Republic Leagues. His career lasted from the mid-1920s until 1965. (Do the math!) He made his Major League Baseball debut with the Cleveland Indians at 42 years of age becoming the first black pitcher in the American League.

A great story I found on Wikipedia tell the story of Joe DiMaggio’s last stop as a minor league player in 1936 before going to the Majors “before joining the New York Yankees, and he was going to have to face one of baseball’s best pitchers: Satchel Paige. DiMaggio ended up going 1-4 with the game-winning RBI in the bottom of the tenth. A Yankee scout watching the game wired the big club that day a report which read, “DIMAGGIO EVERYTHING WE’D HOPED HE’D BE: HIT SATCH ONE FOR FOUR.”

Paige had a reputation for creative pitches, and was described as throwing a lot of pitches that “were not quite legal and not quite illegal". Pitches named the hesitation pitch, the four day creeper, the bee ball, the bat dodger, and the two hump blooper. His famous quote? “I only wish I got to pitch to Babe Ruth.”


12. Lou Gehrig Mostly, you know this guy because he contracted ALS which cut his baseball career short and ALS, a neurological disease, has been known as Lou Gehrig’s disease ever since. But before that, he had the record for the most number of games played consecutively until it was broken by Cal Ripken. Lou Gehrig was a great ball player in other ways, too. Gehrig set the record for 23 career grand slam home runs (which means bases were loaded at the time when the home run was hit.) He played his entire career of seventeen seasons with the New York Yankees. He has a career 1,995 runs batted in and hit a lifetime batting average of .340 and was a Triple Crown winner in 1934 (which means leading the league in batting average, home runs, and RBIs.) Upon announcing his retirement from baseball (forced by his ALS) he uttered one of the most famous quotes in baseball, “I consider myself the luckiest man in the world.”


13. Cal Ripken Cal Ripken was a short stop and third baseman who played his entire career for the Baltimore Orioles from 1981 to 2001. Long ago, when I was just starting to watch baseball, I saw Cal Ripken show up to bat in his 2,131 game breaking the 56-year-old record set by the "Iron Horse" Lou Gehrig, the legendary New York Yankees first baseman. Okay, I was in tears, looking at the screen and the stadium of fans who truly loved this man as a member of the Baltimore Orioles. He went on to play in a record 2,632 straight games spanning sixteen seasons 1982 to 1998 and played in the MLB All Star game 19 times. With players traded more frequently and free agency, the record for continuous games, especially with the same team will probably stand forever. But that is what they said about Gehrig, too.

14. Mickey Mantle The Boyfriend loves Mickey Mantle (even though he was a Yankee) because Mickey Mantle was a bad boy who was a great ball player and who’s bad habits didn’t seem to slow Mantle down on the field. He played 18 seasons with the New York Yankees and played in 16 All Star teams. He played on 12 pennant winners and 7 World Series championships. He still holds the records for most World Series home runs (18), RBIs (40), runs (42), walks (43), extra-base hits (26), and total bases (123). He made late in life news by needing a liver transplant for all the hard living and hard drinking he had indulged in during life. Oooops.

Baseball Names You Should Know, Part One

People who love baseball love to talk about baseball. So here, girlfriend, is an abbreviated history lesson of some of the names you should know. Of course, any time you start doing “Top Ten” lists (actually 14 names in this case), dozens of people start arguing passionately about “how could have possibly not included (insert name here)!!” So don’t look at this entry as a list of top players from history or even a definitive list of names. View it as Baseball Names You Should Know Because People Often Mention Their Names When Talking About Baseball And You Don’t Want to Look Stupid Asking Who They Are. Got others? Write me a note and I’ll post your nomination. This following list includes the first seven names that I think you should know.

1. Of course, any list of baseball greats has to start with Babe Ruth , also nick named "The Bambino", and "The Sultan of Swat". He played from 1914 to 1935, for both the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees. He was a colorful figure and filled with personality and charisma, but more importantly, he was a great hitter. He was the first player to hit 60 home runs in one season (1927), a record which stood for 34 years until broken by Roger Maris in 1961. He had a lifetime total of 714 record home runs which stood as a record for 39 years, until broken by Hank Aaron in 1974. His batting lifetime batting average was .342. But he is known even better for three other things: He brought excitement and the crowds back to baseball in the Twenties after the Black Sox scandals; he supposedly put The Curse of the Bambino on the Red Sox in retaliation for being traded to the Yankees which prevented the Red Sox from winning the World Series for 85 years; and he was on fire for the Yankees who built the current Yankee Stadium during his tenure (known as “The House That Ruth Built”) which is being torn down at the end of the season, while a new stadium right next door will be ready for business starting in 2009.

2. Cy Young I put Cy Young in the list because there is a prestigious pitching award given in his name every year and I had no idea who he is. Turns out his real name is Denton True Young and he was born in 1867. He pitched for five different teams including the Cleveland Spiders and the Boston Rustlers, (got to love those names) and get this, had a lifetime Earned Run Average of 2.63. He had a lifetime 511 wins and 316 losses, had 76 career shutouts, pitched 3 no hitters, and pitched 7,355 innings. (Holy cow, I say!) In honor of this incredible feat, he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1937, and in 1956, Major League Baseball created the Cy Young Award given to a pitcher from each league voted most effective. Roger Clemens has won the Cy Young Award 7 times and Randy Johnson has won it five times. CC Sabithia, who is going to pitch the Milwaukee Brewers into the National League wild card slot, won it for the American League last year.

3. Jackie Robinson is definitely a name you should know because he was the first black baseball player to walk across the baseball color line in the Major League Baseball in the modern era. He made his Major League Baseball with the Brooklyn Dodgers and that appearance ended approximately eighty years of baseball segregation and opened the door to a whole bunch of great players. Robinson played with the Dodgers from 1947 to 1956. He was Rookie of the year in 1947 and had a .311 lifetime batting average. Before Jackie Robinson, black players had the Negro Baseball League. Someone had to be the first, and it was Jackie Robinson. Major League Baseball retired Robinson’s jersey number 42 in 1997, the 50 year anniversary of his debut, across all MLB teams in recognition of his accomplishments both on the field and off the filed in the civil rights movement.


4. Yogi Berra Yogi was a good ball player, catcher, and manager, but the reason you should know him is that he is much better known and quoted for murdering the English language in interesting ways. He played most of his career for the New York Yankees and is now featured in AFLAC commercials (you know, the ones with the duck?). You’ll recognize him for “It ain’t over til it’s over.,” "Ninety percent of this game is half mental." "It's like déjà vu all over again" “that restaurant is so crowded that no one goes there any more” and “When you come to a fork in the road, take it."

5. Reggie Jackson During the playoffs, you will always hear right fielder Reggie Jackson’s name mentioned. He was nicknamed "Mr. October", not for any magazine centerfold appearances , but for his clutch hitting in the postseason. Teams going into the post season liked to have Reggie on their team and he played for five different teams from 1967 to 1987. He played for the Oakland A’s in the early 1970s when they won three consecutive World Series titles and also won 2 consecutive titles with the New York Yankees. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1993. And those guys that sat behind me at the Anchorage Bucs baseball game back in July think he is a pretty good dresser, too.

6. Willie Mays I think the first baseball glove I remember in my house growing up was a Willie Mays edition. Willie Mays is considered by some to be the best ball player ever to play the game. He played with the New York Giants, then the San Francisco Giants and finally with the Mets during 1951 to 1973. Mays had a lifetime career of 660 home runs and made twenty-four appearances in the All-Star Game. Plus by all anecdotal accounts, he was a genuinely nice and charismatic man. Here’s a cool stat that you can use during a game of extra innings: Mays is the only Major League player to have hit a home run in every inning from the 1st through the 16th.

7. Ted Williams I almost got in real trouble with The Boyfriend for overlooking this guy. Boston loves this man, though to be honest, he could be a son-of-a-bitch. But he was one of best ball players to play the game. He played 19 seasons with the Red Sox and is best known for a career batting average of .344 and being the last player to bat over .400 in a single season. He also won the Triple Crown twice which means he ended two seasons leading leads the league in home runs, runs batted in, and batting average. This guy played with the Red Sox from 1939 to 1960 with two breaks out for military services and was in the All Star Game a total of 17 times. Boston has retired his number 9. A tremendous player all around and one of Boston’s best ever. He is also remembered for spitting on a fan, refusing to tip his ballcap to acknowledge the crowd, and was frozen after his death in 2002 (in a process called biostasis) by his daughter who hopes to bring him back when medical technology gets better. Oh yeah, they named that big tunnel thingy in Boston after him, the one that gets you out to Logan Airport faster. Boston loves this guy.

Click below to see footage of Ted Williams at bat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwogLVGtDa8


More names to come in the next entry….