Future Generations Will Make Baseball Fun Again
As a young ball player, I disliked having to sacrifice bunt and only make the sure play every time. Every time I did something that was risky I was told that it was not acceptable. Even if what I did was successful and helped the team. An example of this would be turning a double play on a fly ball in the infield. Let me explain. There is a man on first with nobody out and a fly ball is hit toward SS, 2B, 3B, or 1B. You purposely drop the ball, flip it to second, and then the ball is thrown to first base for the double play. I have seen Major Leaguers do this and get the double play so I would try it and was successful. For some reason, my coaches were not very amused even though it resulted in two outs instead of one out. I think that this mindset is partially the reason why the game of baseball is being portrayed as “not fun.” Although that is an extremely small piece of the game, I think it is a good example of how the game is being dulled down.
Another reason that baseball is becoming less fun is because coaches try to micromanage their players. When I say coaches, I am referring to anybody who coaches from Tee ball all the way up to the MLB. When you tell a hitter to take until he has a strike, you are promoting a timid mindset in the batter’s box. A timid mindset tends to result in failure and frustration which is not fun to experience or watch someone else experience. Everyone enjoys watching the home runs, the 100mph pitches, spectacular diving catches, and a throw from the warning track to cook a guy at the plate. Those things usually are not imaginable if players are constantly being told from a young age to take pitches, do not walk anyone, and always hit the cut-off man. There is a time and a place for each of those things I just mentioned but it is not what young ball players should be focusing on.
Taking pitches just because someone said to take pitches is never the right play. Having played from tee ball all the way through D1 baseball (and hopefully professionally someday), taking pitches has only gotten me into trouble. You get into pitchers counts where the pitcher does not have to come to the hitter. Again this tends to lead to strikeouts or bad at bats which leads back to the part about not having fun. The first pitch of an at bat may be the best pitch a hitter will see the entire at bat. For pitchers, it is always exciting to light up the radar gun. I am not a big proponent of using radar guns because it does not tell the whole story of a pitcher. There is a lot more to pitching than just velocity but that will be for a different post. As a pitcher it is tough to be told to throw as hard as you can but also to not walk anyone. Walks are a part of the game but so are strikeouts. It is okay to walk someone and it is also okay to strikeout someone. Hitting the cut-off man on an extra base hit is a very important part of the game as well. Knowing WHEN to hit the cut-off man is even more important. The cut does not need to be hit on every extra base hit or sacrifice fly. There are a lot of factors that go into when and when not to hit the cut but I believe that outfielders should be allowed to throw to a base when the time is right.
You are probably wondering why this post is titled “Future Generations Will Make Baseball Fun Again” and I will explain right now. I grew up with coaches who did not let me “play the game” and so did my teammates. Every time I have a conversation with teammates about making baseball fun we always talk about how we will coach our kids someday. We talk about how are kids are going to be the next Bryce Harper because we will allow them to hit the ball in the air and have the possibility of hitting a home run. We will allow our kids to walk someone with the possibility of blowing a fastball by for a strikeout. I believe that future generations of baseball will be successful in changing the culture of the game.
By: Goat captain,
Gloveman
