Talking baseball

Here's another guy who thinks baseball needs to be sped up to fix it, citing deteriorating World Series television ratings and our attention deficit lifestyle as factors. Baseball is fine, it's greed that's killing it. Long commercials and expensive tickets are making it difficult for the casual fan to get into the game. Even then, it's difficult to get a really good seat, assuming they are not available sold out to corporations who don't attend, unless you're willing to shell out $70 or more or so per ticket. Small market teams that will never be able to compete, at least long term with the big market teams (anyone remember the late 70s when it seemed the KC Royals & the NY Yankees were always battling for the American League pennant?). Unless you have a new stadium in a big market, fergetaboutit. As for timeliness, watch a regular season game and they go much more quickly and are generally more informative (if your local announcers are any good). I love baseball and watch it throughout the year, at least until October. Come the end of the regular season, the games that started just after dinner, now don't start for another hour or so. While I might luck in with an early playoff game during the first week or two of October, that ends as baseball reaches it's final rounds. I don't watch the World Series, at least until the end of the game, because the games don't start until 8:30 ET, which is around my son's bedtime. During the regular season, night games begin around 7PM and end around 9:30/10:00, which is around my bedtime. With all the commercial breaks World Series games don't end until midnight. Sorry, I have to be at work the next morning so unless it's my Mets team in the Series, I'm not staying up to watch the game. Even then I'd probably couldn't do that 2 nights in a row; when the Mets last made the Series I fell asleep watching the games more than once, not from boredom but from rising before 6AM that morning. I find it hard to invest my time in something I'm barely going to watch. During the regular season, night games start and end at a reasonable hour for those of us who have school and work in the morning. Not so in the post-season, unless an occasional day game is scheduled. More and more of us have longer commutes and are getting up earlier and earlier these days. Let the World Series end at a reasonable hour here in the East, where most of us live, and I'd bet the rating would rise. Another issue is that it seems we have the same teams in the post-season year in/year out. Oh, I know you occasionally get fresh blood like the Cubs or Phillies, but, even as a New Yorker, I'm tired of seeing the Yankees every fall. As a Mets fan, I'm happy my team has enough money to be in it every year, but I'd enjoy watching other teams such as the Twins, Pirates or Royals make it to the big show once in awhile. How is baseball going to entice fans from Pittsburgh to watch when their team is eliminated by May 15th? As to viewers departing during long commercial breaks, the answer is simple: shorter commercials. Of course that would ultimately mean less money as TV and radio stations would have fewer commercial slots to sell so all involved would have to to stop being the guy who killed the golden goose which I don't see happening. Further, a lot of people say the lack of sudden excitement is killing baseball. I disagree. Excitement is there, it's just not always apparent. Baseball is subtle. You have to think. Will walking this batter help or hurt my team? Time for a pitching change? What if the runner steals second? What if he strikes out? Then what will be the next step? Maybe something will happen, maybe nothing will. These questions can arise in the first inning or they can arise in the ninth. Think, don't just react. Even then, a manager's move is not always as apparent as a football coach's who gets to see the results of his play very soon after he calls it. Anticipation can be great. Baseball is also something to relax to after a long day. Yes, it doesn't have the slam-bam style our culture has devolved to but the trick isn't to speed up the innings but to retrain ourselves to enjoy the nice slow pace of a game as we try to relax on a summer evening, listening to the announcers explain a play in great detail (or some other piece of interesting information). While the boom play of football is fun, the slap stick sudden goal you can't see until replayed in slow motion in hockey can be exciting, baseball is something you have to wait on many times to see the big play. Learn to enjoy the tenseness of a World Series game as it builds until it is destroyed with just a swing of the bat. Appreciate baseball like a chess game, a slow methodical process where the outcome depends on a few seemingly minor moves made somewhere between the start and the finish.

Little League

This spring was the first spring where our eldest played little league. In the weeks since it all started, I've gained a new appreciation for all the volunteers who put it together. I've also gained new respect for umpires, after I umped today.

So far, aside from a debate about where the batter's box was between coaches (didn't want the kid playing catcher to get whacked) and a mother upset that she didn't get the revised practice schedule (not sure if she was really angry or that's just the way she talks), it's been fairly peaceful. The boys are only 7, so the rules are pretty lax - 4 strikes per at bat, 6 runs max per inning, umpires reminding the boys to run when they hit, coaches calling safes and outs on the basepaths, etc. Fortunately a coach pitches or else we'd still be in the first inning (no walks allowed), hours later.

The team has a team coach and assistants. As we're a combination blue collar/white collar suburb of New York, 1 or 2 assistants are usually working so a few of the dads usually end up coaching. For the first few weeks of the season I've been our team's first base coach. For the most part, it consists of congratulating a hitter and then reminding the runner to run (or to hold) when the next batter makes contact. Not too stressful. Up until the day, the hardest thing wasat the start of the season where, because the assistants were missing, I and another dad helped an assistant coach (our head coach is the town's fire chief and had to drive the fire truck that was leading the parade) lead our team from the municipal center to the ballfields in the park across the road. Nothing like keeping a dozen, excited 7 year olds in check to make your reflexes go "Dude! You're almost 40!" Today though, I found a harder job. Today I was the ump.

When registering for the season, in addition to our sons' fees, the parents are required to write a post-dated $50 check that will be returned at the end of the season if they volunteer. Umpiring is one of the volunteer duties. The home team provides the umpire, so when the coach asked me if I wanted to ump and realizing that standing for two hours on a nice cool, partly cloudy day in early spring is much better than standing in a very warm sun in June, I said sure and went to home plate. First thing I discovered is there wasn't an umpire's chest protector; no problem, I'm a big guy and have my own padding. Then I learned why you never see umpires wearing glasses (aside from the blind umpire jokes); the umpire's protection face mask didn't fit very well over my glasses (at least that was the story we were telling the commish because, in truth, we forgot the mask).

PLAY BALL .... what, the second baseman isn't ready yet? .... ok, everybody ready? PLAY .... Tommy! Tie your shoe.... OK ... Everybody ready? PLAY BALL? Yes, play ball. I only lost track of the strikes a few times, until I learned to call the strike number even with a foul. I'm pretty sure I gave a few batters 5 strikes. There were also a few fouls I didn't call. In my defense, they were hits, but in our schools parks where the fields are not Yankee Stadium quality, there were some bad bounces, not to mention the dropped bats in fair territory that would cause the dribblers that should've gone foul stay fair. Oh, speaking of bats, some of these kids let their bats fly when they hit. Fortunately they usually missed me and the catcher. Since it's little league, the bat boy is the ump. Also, the fetcher of wild pitches is the ump. Catcher of fouls going back? The ump. Reminding the batter to run when he makes contact? The ump (it got to where I told each batter that if they made contact, run -- someone will tell you if it's a foul and call you back). It's a busy job. Then you have to be careful not to favor your own child's team (not a problem, after a while it does become instinctive).

6 innings and two hours later, the game was over. My son's team won, don't ask me the score (the coaches track the scores mostly so they know when 6 runs in an inning have been scored). My umpiring adventure was over. What I didn't realize was how tiring that was. After our 10 minute drive home I got of the car and felt tired. Nothing like 2 hours of calling strikes, catching or dodging fouls and throwing countless balls back to the pitcher I suppose (I still went to the gym a little later). Anyway, the last few weeks of coaching and, now, umpiring has given me a new respect for all the volunteers who help out our children and even a little more respect for the home plate umpires who call balls and strikes and get whacked by foul tips.