Philosophy
This weekend, the shorter of the short people had his first baseball tournament in which the infield fly rule was part of the game. If there are base runners on first and second base with less than two outs and the ball is popped to the infield, the batter is automatically out. This is because it is a situation in which the runners find themselves in a dilemma. If they run, then the ball gets caught and the player who caught the ball can throw to the vacated base for a double play; but if they don't run the infielder can intentionally drop the ball, pick it up and throw it to the base to which the runner would have advanced and start a double play that way. To stop this sort of double play by cute strategy instead of skilled play, the rule was created calling the batter out and allowing the runners to maintain their positions.
On the one hand, no nine year old will understand the situation well enough and have sufficiently skilled fellow infielders to turn the intentionally dropped pop-up into a double or triple play. The rule does not serve its purpose in this game. On the other hand, the rule will be part of the game in years to come, so the kids need to understand it as they grow in the game.
Does it make sense to have the infield fly rule for nine years olds for whom it is a useless rule?
- The Value Of A Ball
The Old Man took me and LilBro to ball games as kids and now I take my short people, but as many games as I've gone to, one thing I've never done is come away with a ball. There are four ways a fan gets a game ball -- catch a foul ball or home...
- Heart Breaker Or Blowout?
The shorter of the short people's ball team lost a tight one this weekend. In the championship game of a tournament they were playing, they lost by one run with the tying run on third and the go ahead run on second in the last inning. After the long...
- The Almost Perfect Game And Social Construction
In the 80s and 90s, the heyday of post-modernism, the argument was not infrequently made that much if not everything was socially constructed. Facts were not of the world, but of human creation. It is true that a red light means stop, not because there...
- The Designated Hitter, Should It Stay Or Should It Go?
One more. Peter LC asks, "With the beginning of baseball season looming - what do people think about the designated hitter? Good, bad or indifferent? Is the American League a better game than the National League because of the dh or visa versa? "I have...
- The Ghost Of Jackie Mitchell Smiles
Eri Yoshida has been drafted to play professional baseball.A 16-year-old schoolgirl with a mean knuckleball has been selected as the first woman ever to play alongside the men in Japanese professional baseball. Eri Yoshida was drafted for a new independent...
Philosophy
Learning Useless Rules
This weekend, the shorter of the short people had his first baseball tournament in which the infield fly rule was part of the game. If there are base runners on first and second base with less than two outs and the ball is popped to the infield, the batter is automatically out. This is because it is a situation in which the runners find themselves in a dilemma. If they run, then the ball gets caught and the player who caught the ball can throw to the vacated base for a double play; but if they don't run the infielder can intentionally drop the ball, pick it up and throw it to the base to which the runner would have advanced and start a double play that way. To stop this sort of double play by cute strategy instead of skilled play, the rule was created calling the batter out and allowing the runners to maintain their positions.
On the one hand, no nine year old will understand the situation well enough and have sufficiently skilled fellow infielders to turn the intentionally dropped pop-up into a double or triple play. The rule does not serve its purpose in this game. On the other hand, the rule will be part of the game in years to come, so the kids need to understand it as they grow in the game.
Does it make sense to have the infield fly rule for nine years olds for whom it is a useless rule?
- The Value Of A Ball
The Old Man took me and LilBro to ball games as kids and now I take my short people, but as many games as I've gone to, one thing I've never done is come away with a ball. There are four ways a fan gets a game ball -- catch a foul ball or home...
- Heart Breaker Or Blowout?
The shorter of the short people's ball team lost a tight one this weekend. In the championship game of a tournament they were playing, they lost by one run with the tying run on third and the go ahead run on second in the last inning. After the long...
- The Almost Perfect Game And Social Construction
In the 80s and 90s, the heyday of post-modernism, the argument was not infrequently made that much if not everything was socially constructed. Facts were not of the world, but of human creation. It is true that a red light means stop, not because there...
- The Designated Hitter, Should It Stay Or Should It Go?
One more. Peter LC asks, "With the beginning of baseball season looming - what do people think about the designated hitter? Good, bad or indifferent? Is the American League a better game than the National League because of the dh or visa versa? "I have...
- The Ghost Of Jackie Mitchell Smiles
Eri Yoshida has been drafted to play professional baseball.A 16-year-old schoolgirl with a mean knuckleball has been selected as the first woman ever to play alongside the men in Japanese professional baseball. Eri Yoshida was drafted for a new independent...