RunningUp The Score, Or Not?
August 26, 2020 at 2:19 a.m.
RunningUp The Score, Or Not?
By Roger Grossman-
Here’s the background.
The Padres were beating the Texas Rangers 10-3 in the eighth inning of a game last Monday. San Diego had loaded the bases and Tatis was facing a 3-0 count.
That 3-0 pitch was a center-cut fastball, what little kids call a meatball, meant to prevent a bases-loaded walk and another run scored. Tatis crushed it to right-center field for a grand slam to make it 14-3.
As soon as he had hit the ball, the pitcher came stomping off the mound toward home plate, staring at the batter.
Why?
He had violated the unwritten rule of baseball about not swinging on 3-0 when you way ahead in a Major League Baseball game.
Yep, you read that correctly.
His indiscretion was SO much an abomination, that the Rangers pitcher threw the next pitch way behind the Padres batter.
Message sent, I guess.
The whole point was that when you are up seven runs late in a game, you don’t try to embarrass anyone.
And there are, I think, things that big-leaguers should not do in games that are clearly out of hand. Had this rising young star stolen second base in that scenario, for example—that’s not cool. Had he tried to stretch a single into a double or tried to be really aggressive on the bases—totally understand how that could rub someone the wrong way.
But let’s go back to the scenario again. The Rangers were already down seven and their pitchers had given up 10 runs while only getting 22 outs. The bases were loaded because the Texas pitchers couldn’t get them out. The current pitcher threw three unhittable pitches, the lofted a predictibly easy pitch to hit toward the plate, assuming the batter wasn’t going to swing.
And, for the record, that assumption was wrong.
Whose fault is that?
Hint: It’s not the batter’s.
At the professional level, the list of “unwritten rules” should be very short. Each item on that list must start with the phrase “to be a professional (insert sport here)”. Everything else is part of the game.
The Rangers got their feelings hurt, but if I could ask them directly, I would ask “which would you rather have, an opponent swinging on 3-0 up seven in the eighth inning, or having the game ended after seven innings because of a mercy rule?”
What if baseball put in a rule that said after seven innings, if one team is up by seven runs at the end of that inning, the game is over?
High schools have that — it’s 10 runs after 5 innings. In softball, a game can be called in as few as three innings, if the difference is 20 or more runs.
There isn’t much that bothers me more than a little kids’ basketball team pressing and trapping with their starters still in the game up 30 in the fourth quarter.
The difference-making component there is the age level. Little kids are supposed to be learning the game. But we have too many kids whose parents and coaches are blood-thirsty for their own vain purposes that they cross the line of good sportsmanship. And, of course, if you dare challenge them on their approach, you get “your team should work to get better.”
Lame…very lame.
Professional athletes get paid and are (and should be) held to a higher standard. They play more games each season, and they are going to play in games where their team just doesn’t have it and they get blown out. It happens. They’ll be a next time a few days after and they’ll get over it.
Well, at least they should.
Little kids…that’s a different story.
We should work hard to lessen the importance of the final score of games and put more into improvement and development.
I am not saying give every kid a trophy. I am suggesting that we work toward bigger goals in every kid.
And one last thought—we all need to, at least occasionally, get over ourselves a little bit.
Occasionally, a lot.
Here’s the background.
The Padres were beating the Texas Rangers 10-3 in the eighth inning of a game last Monday. San Diego had loaded the bases and Tatis was facing a 3-0 count.
That 3-0 pitch was a center-cut fastball, what little kids call a meatball, meant to prevent a bases-loaded walk and another run scored. Tatis crushed it to right-center field for a grand slam to make it 14-3.
As soon as he had hit the ball, the pitcher came stomping off the mound toward home plate, staring at the batter.
Why?
He had violated the unwritten rule of baseball about not swinging on 3-0 when you way ahead in a Major League Baseball game.
Yep, you read that correctly.
His indiscretion was SO much an abomination, that the Rangers pitcher threw the next pitch way behind the Padres batter.
Message sent, I guess.
The whole point was that when you are up seven runs late in a game, you don’t try to embarrass anyone.
And there are, I think, things that big-leaguers should not do in games that are clearly out of hand. Had this rising young star stolen second base in that scenario, for example—that’s not cool. Had he tried to stretch a single into a double or tried to be really aggressive on the bases—totally understand how that could rub someone the wrong way.
But let’s go back to the scenario again. The Rangers were already down seven and their pitchers had given up 10 runs while only getting 22 outs. The bases were loaded because the Texas pitchers couldn’t get them out. The current pitcher threw three unhittable pitches, the lofted a predictibly easy pitch to hit toward the plate, assuming the batter wasn’t going to swing.
And, for the record, that assumption was wrong.
Whose fault is that?
Hint: It’s not the batter’s.
At the professional level, the list of “unwritten rules” should be very short. Each item on that list must start with the phrase “to be a professional (insert sport here)”. Everything else is part of the game.
The Rangers got their feelings hurt, but if I could ask them directly, I would ask “which would you rather have, an opponent swinging on 3-0 up seven in the eighth inning, or having the game ended after seven innings because of a mercy rule?”
What if baseball put in a rule that said after seven innings, if one team is up by seven runs at the end of that inning, the game is over?
High schools have that — it’s 10 runs after 5 innings. In softball, a game can be called in as few as three innings, if the difference is 20 or more runs.
There isn’t much that bothers me more than a little kids’ basketball team pressing and trapping with their starters still in the game up 30 in the fourth quarter.
The difference-making component there is the age level. Little kids are supposed to be learning the game. But we have too many kids whose parents and coaches are blood-thirsty for their own vain purposes that they cross the line of good sportsmanship. And, of course, if you dare challenge them on their approach, you get “your team should work to get better.”
Lame…very lame.
Professional athletes get paid and are (and should be) held to a higher standard. They play more games each season, and they are going to play in games where their team just doesn’t have it and they get blown out. It happens. They’ll be a next time a few days after and they’ll get over it.
Well, at least they should.
Little kids…that’s a different story.
We should work hard to lessen the importance of the final score of games and put more into improvement and development.
I am not saying give every kid a trophy. I am suggesting that we work toward bigger goals in every kid.
And one last thought—we all need to, at least occasionally, get over ourselves a little bit.
Occasionally, a lot.
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