If you are a player and not actively playing or on deck to hit, you do your waiting in the dugout. Dugouts are designated places in a ball park where teams wait when they are not on the field. Most dugouts sit slightly below ground level so the fans can see over the top and get a good look at home plate. It’s the place that all the equipment is stored (bats, gloves, catcher’s equipment, batting helmets) and the dugout for each team is connected by tunnel to its respective clubhouse.
Dugouts in Major League Parks are located along the first and third base sides, though there is no “official” placement of the home team dugout. A majority have the home team dugout on the first base side. Some say that is because there are more close plays at first so that dugout is preferred to enable a better view. Some home team dugouts are on the third base side and some say that’s because in the past when the manager also served as the third base coach, he didn’t have to walk as far between innings. Some teams picked the dugout that was connected to the better clubhouse.
But no matter where it is, baseball has rules about it. Think you can get a good seat up front because you know someone on the team? Uh uh. Back in your bleacher seat, girlfriend. The only ones allowed in the dugout during play are the players not on the field at the time – managers, coaches, ball boys and ball girls, trainers, and players on the disabled list. The folks on the DL can only watch. They can’t get on the field or help the team in anyway once the game has started.
The dugout can still be a factor when the ball is in play. A fielder may reach into a dugout to catch a fly ball as long as one or both feet are on or over the playing field, and no foot is on the ground in the dugout when he makes the catch. If his momentum takes him in there, it is still live. But if he falls into the dugout as a result of a legal catch (which is much more likely because he is probably going over a rail) the catch is allowed but baserunners advance one base.
Okay, that being said, while you are waiting for this flying fielder to make a spectacular leap into enemy territory, what are you gonna do while you’re waiting? What you can’t do is provoke the spectators or cat call pretty girls in the stands. No, no, no. Or else you can get ejected from the field. You can’t try to cause the pitcher to mess up by yelling immature things like “your fly is open!” Or else you can get ejected from the field. You can’t distract the batter. Everyone else in the stands can be waving a terrible towel, but you can’t. Or else you can get ejected from the field. You get the idea. Umpires make the final decision but you need to refrain from misbehavior. So you watch the game, check out the all-you-can-eat sunflower seed and Gatorade buffet, and chat with your fellow teammates.
God help you, though, if you have to sit next to that same guy you had sat next to last time who has to relive that awesome hit off the back wall stand up double that brought in two runs in the first inning. He is the guy you see on tv who is intensely chewing the ear of that quiet right fielder. (Think Dustin Pedroira of the Red Sox) He is that intense guy who shoots words at you like a machine gun. So you might choose to go find someone else to spit seeds and talk with.
But don’t talk to the pitcher. Leave him alone, Chatty Cathy. He is breathing through his eyelids trying to channel some zen because the meat of the batting order is coming up. Or worse, he was taken out of the game because he walked three batters in a row and that same meat of the batting order came up right after that and he doesn’t want to talk to anyone about what happened.
So you go over to stand with your buddies at the rail and check out the action. You cheer on your teammates and study the pitcher and slap guys’ butts as they come back into the dugout to wait. And sometimes you get to be on television in that great shot that I love to see, at home watching and waiting in my own dugout called the couch. The batter hits a fast ball and it rockets out of the park for a home run and in the instant replay, the television shows the view of the players hanging over the rail watching and waiting. I call it the “Look-Up-Stand-Up-Straight-Follow-The-Ball-With-Your-Eyes-Wait-For-It-----Pump-Your-Fist!” shot. Look for it. I bet you see it in the next game you watch.
The Boyfriend knows that when I’m bored with the game, I start to make up my own dialogue about what is being said in the dugout. Sometimes when the manager heads to the phone to call the bullpen, I instead imagine him ordering takeout for the boys. “Yah, can we get one of those chicken ranch deluxe pizzas, and a salad for the pitcher (he’s lactose intolerant) and a couple of nacho boats? But leave it outside the door ‘cause you can’t come in here.”
And if you are allowed in there, you have to stay there. If you come out on the field when you aren’t supposed to, the umpire can throw your sorry ass off the field. He doesn’t always do that (such as when a manager comes out to argue a play) but he can. When a player or a manager (or I guess even the ball girl) gets thrown out of the game, he (or she) gets thrown out of the dugout too.
Unless you think you can sneak back in without anyone noticing. Bobby Valentine, long time manager most famously of the New York Mets, thought he had the perfect way to sneak back into the dugout without anyone noticing—NOT. Check it out at http://m.mlb.com/video/v8852885/mlb-network-remembers-bobby-valentine-in-disguise
You also can’t lose it and pound up the phone like David Ortiz after what he thought was a bad call. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5Ga-S8XRvc Ouch. Ortiz got ejected from the game right before that little tantrum that almost took out the phone. But the phone took a licking and kept on ticking. Something to be said for having a land line. In case you want to order a nacho boat or something for the boys while they wait.
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