The wonderful unpredictability of baseball

The third-division game I was umpiring had some weird managing antics and a very dramatic ninth inning. The visiting team manager surprised everyone–including his own players–with his substitutions. In the second inning, their first batter drew a walk and was replaced at first by a pinch runner. They sent up another pinch runner in the sixth inning, replacing a guy who had only come into the game the inning before. That guy was not amused.

Down a couple of runs in the seventh inning, the manager pulled a new rabbit out of his hat. He put himself into the line-up, batting for his catcher. He took two pitches before asking a time-out to give signs to his runners at first and second. They attempted a double steal on the next pitch–not quite surprising, but they made it nonetheless. The player-manager then hit an RBI single and allowed the other runner to score by getting himself in a rundown.

The eight inning finished with the home team up 6-4. They kept their starting pitcher on the mound to close out the game. They got two outs, but also allowed runners on second and third. The next batter got two strikes. Down to the visitors’ final strike, the batter swung at the next pitch–one down and away–and slapped it into right field for a game-tying triple. The visitors rallied for six (!) more runs before the home team finally retired them.

Of course, the home team wasn’t just going to give up, despite the unexpected six-run gap. A couple of hits and errors brought the score up to 12-10. That was the cue for the visiting manager to pull off his final stunt. Apparently having lost all confidence in his players, he put himself on the mound and let loose with a series of curve balls to try and close out the game. He might have succeeded if he’d hit the strike zone some more. A lot of his pitches sailed wide; indeed, another run scored on a wild pitch. That set the stage for the home team to cap their dramatic come-back with a two-out, game-tying single. The pitcher-manager then finally struck out the next batter to send the game into extra innings…

… except that it was 10:53pm at that time, and no new inning may be started anymore after 10:50pm. Dutch rules allow for a tie game in such cases, so that’s exactly what we got: a 12-12 tie. Who would have thought that 34 minutes earlier, when we started the ninth inning at 6-4?

Confessions of a soccer hater

I don’t like soccer.

It’s a boring game. After watching twenty-two men chasing a ball for ninety minutes, you’d be lucky if they scored thrice. In 306 games in the Dutch Eredivisie this year, the average was 3.12 goals per game. That’s roughly one goal every half hour, or less if you include the half-time break. Major League Baseball teams managed 9.60 runs per game in the 2007 regular season. Granted, baseball games take longer, but not more than three times as long.

Normally, it’s quite possible to avoid soccer, but every other summer there’s a European Championship or a World Championship. During those three or four weeks, it’s as if there’s nothing but soccer. It’s on every tv channel, in every newspaper, on every website. Homes and bars and stores turn orange. Even people turn orange, and Planet Earth might as well be a giant soccer ball.

Most annoyingly, nobody seems to be allowed not to like soccer for the duration of the tournament. The soccer craze is forced upon you, whether you like it or not. You have to watch the games and talk about them the next day. That’s society’s fault, though, not the game’s.

Indeed, it’s no different this time. The European Championship started last week and it’s everywhere. Just two more weeks, and I’ll be free again until June 11th, 2010.

Still…

I watched the Netherlands’ first game on Monday, against reigning World Champs Italy, and I have to confess I enjoyed it. The score was certainly pleasing enough: 3-0 in our favour. Beforehand, a draw was considered an optimistic prediction. Our squad played their best game in years, Italy their worst. And yes, I watched it in its entirety, and I wasn’t bored. (Well, perhaps a little bit at some point during the second half. I continued to watch with one eye, while reading a magazine with the other.)

Of course, I didn’t have much else to do that night. I was visiting my thesis advisor in Garching this week. That’s a nice little German town. Nice, and very quiet. I thought I might as well watch the game for a while.

Yesterday, during supper, Croatia were beating Germany. That was fun as well, if for a different reason. The German commentator was so terribly desperate that I almost felt sorry for him. It’s only a game!

The Netherlands’ second game is on right now, against France. It’s two thirds through the first half and, much to my surprise, we’ve got a 1-0 lead. Perhaps I should turn on my television. I might enjoy it
again…

[Update: We beat France 4-1 to secure first place in Group C, the "Group of Death" with World Champions Italy and WC runners-up France, and we haven't even played the third and final game yet. Group of Death indeed! It'll be the death of Italy or France, or both if we let Romania win on Tuesday.]

Frogball

NY Times on Dutch baseball

The New York Times had a nice piece yesterday on baseball in the Netherlands, talking about how the sport gained popularity here during and after World War II, the recent influx of Dutch pitchers in the US, the dominance of soccer, and more.

Asked what Dutch youngsters like about baseball, Mr. Eenhoorn [the coach of the Dutch national baseball team] said: “It’s American; it’s a summer sport, filling the gap left by soccer in spring and early summer. You know, we did research and found that kids like baseball, they like hitting the ball with the bat, they like the clothing. I don’t think it’s peaked.”

Most Dutch baseball teams were in fact started by soccer clubs in search of a sport for the months between soccer seasons. Johan Cruyff, the king of Dutch soccer, began his career as a catcher for Amsterdam Ajax’s nine, before he ever kicked a soccer ball.

The article comes back to the topic of soccer a bit further on:

Still, for the Dutch, Mr. Eenhoorn said, soccer remains the principal sport.

Tim Roodenburg, a 19-year-old pitcher with Sparta Feyenoord who got a tryout with the Yankees last year at a camp in the Dominican Republic, tends to agree. A former basketball player, he gave it up to focus on baseball, and now teaches city kids to play baseball and softball.

“I’ve seen it on the street,” he said. “Kids will take a softball, drop it on the ground, then kick it.”

The entire piece is available for free here.

Second first win

We won our first competition game this year, but that result has been scratched from the books. The opposing team in question pulled out of the competition, so all games they played so far had to be nullified. That left us with two losses and one tie.

Today, we put the ‘1′ back in our win column by defeating Red Lions from The Hague by 12 to 8. Red Lions is in the unfortunate situation that they do not have a baseball field of their own. The club does have a softball field, but they have to play their baseball games at the field of the nearby Celeritas club. Oddly enough, Celeritas only has a softball field, too. Its outfield is much bigger, though, so the league deems it suitable for baseball games. I disagree, because the bases are somewhere out on the grass, there’s no pitcher’s mound and the backstop is way too close. You can play a baseball game there, but it’s not a baseball field.

Anyway, we played, and we played pretty well. The Red Lions team consists of a bunch of guys of at most 23 years old, plus one playing coach of 30-something. They have the potential to be a good team in a few years, but right now they’re not going to win a lot of games. We took an early lead and didn’t have too much trouble keeping that safe.

I got to play shortstop again for the entire game and had my share in an overall pretty solid defensive game on our part. We were hitting quite well, too, and I was happy to get my second hit of the season and my first two RBIs. Meanwhile, we were getting spoiled by all kinds of snacks and thingies brought along to celebrate Mother’s Day. A clear sky and a temperature of 25 °C (77 °F) were further contributing to a very enjoyable game.

Road game at home

We were supposed to play today’s game in Delft against Machos. However, a miscommunication somewhere had led to the Machos field being double-booked. Our own field was available, so we played this road game at home. (Too bad we only learned of the double booking when we got to the field. It would have saved us the drive there and back.)

The lead changed hands several times and the game remained exciting until the final out. We started with a 3-0 lead after two innings, but Machos started hitting the ball better and pulled even. We soon came back on top, 4-3, but Machos struck another blow and took a 6-4 lead. With the two-hour mark approaching, we went to bat and took the score to 6-6.

Machos was still the home team, so the final at-bat was theirs. I took over pitching from our starter with the task of keeping the 6-6 tie. I walked the first batter (number eight in their line-up) on five pitches and started with three balls to the next guy. The next two pitches were strikes. The next one would have been ball four, except that the batter swung through it for the first out. The third batter (number one in their line-up) took two strikes before ripping one hard to third. Our third baseman was right on it and threw to first for the second out. With the runner on third by now, the next batter swung at the second pitch and hit a slow roller back at me. My throw to first was a bit low, but still good for the third out and a save of the 6-6 tie. Mission accomplished!

As solid as my performance was on the mound, so poor was it at the plate today. Apart from one very long foul ball (had the distance to hit the left-field wall, but it sailed foul by a large distance), I didn’t really hit anything. I grounded out to third in the first inning and struck out three times throughout the rest of the game. That’s four plate appearances to forget as soon as possible.

Baseball lessons

In my seven plate appearances over the first two games this year, I got on base six times. Not too bad, eh? Strangely enough, only one of those six was on a hit. The others are three walks and two free passes after getting hit by a pitch.

More notable stats: in these seven appearances, I either got a full count or I got hit by a pitch. It’s not that I don’t want to hit. I do, but I’m not quite hitting the ball the right way yet. I’ve got ten foul balls to go with my one fair ball. And if I keep fouling off pitches, there’s a good chance the pitcher will miss a few strikes and give me a walk. Unless he hits me, of course.

Anyway, walking is better than striking out, so I’ll take my 1-for-2 batting average with three walks and two HBPs. Who doesn’t want a .857 on-base percentage?

Oh, and today’s score? A 22-3 loss. The Gophers came over from Maassluis to teach us a few baseball lessons. They outpitched us, outran us, outfielded us and outthrew us. If they continue playing like this, my money’s on them for the championship.

Despite the lopsided score, I did enjoy the game and made the best of it. I pitched the last two innings, not in any effort to get us back on top, but simply to get in some practice in case our regular starter is unavailable one day. I was all over the place (without hitting any batters, though) and gave up a large number of walks. When I threw strikes, the Gophers would usually connect for a hit or a reached-on-error. I threw three strike-outs in the second inning, but I must have faced well over ten batters to get there. Still, it showed that I can get something done from the mound. I just have to get rid of all the balls and easy-to-hit strikes.

The Unusual Play of the Week came in the junioren game (ages 16-21) that I was umpiring after my own game. A batter for the visiting team hit one deep to left field and came safely into third for an apparent triple. The bases were empty, so I did what I should do as an umpire in that case: watch if the batter actually touches the bases on his way by. If he fails to touch one, he is out if the defense properly appeals.

Indeed, I saw the batter miss first base and I was kind of hoping someone on the home team had noticed as well and would try an appeal. After all, I’ve never had a missed-base appeal so far. Lo and behold, one of the home-team supporters saw the infraction and alerted the first baseman. He didn’t have a clue as to how to do a proper appeal, and neither did any of the other players. Fortunately, the coach was more knowledgeable. Without calling time, he talked his players through the procedure, and I got to call the batter out.

Needless to say, the guy wasn’t too happy with this, and he let me know in no uncertain terms. The coach quickly sent his player to the dugout (probably saving him from an ejection) and came over to me to plead on his player’s behalf. The argument was short and conducted in a gentlemanly fashion. I don’t think I convinced the coach, but he accepted my judgment. There was some aggressive language from the visitors’ bench for the remainder of the inning, but they behaved fair enough for the rest of the game. If only all disputes were handled this peacefully!

Bruised elbow, broken wrist

Baseball can be a rough game. We’ve all seen runners torpedoing the shortstop or second baseman to break up a double play, or crashing into the catcher to force a path to home plate. And how about foul balls or wild pitches hitting the catcher or the umpire? Sure, they’re wearing protective gear, but it’s not full-body armour.

I was painfully reminded today that an umpire’s arms are very much not protected against incoming baseballs. I was behind the plate for a double header of my club’s aspiranten (ages 13-15). The visiting team’s second catcher had a hard time catching an inside pitch when the batter swung and missed. Such pitches are coming straight at me, so I rely on the catcher to protect me. When the kid missed one, I took a shot off the outer part of my left wrist. My entire lower arm went numb and I could hardly raise it and extend my fingers to indicate the count for a couple of minutes afterwards. Feeling and functionality soon returned between innings.

Later that game, the catcher let another pitch go through, and this one found a very unpleasant spot just below my left elbow. Again, I couldn’t lift my arm for some time, or properly extend my fingers. It also left me jittery on any inside pitch for the rest of the game. Suffering from the catcher’s limited skills twice was quite enough. Fortunately, another kid caught the second game and did an excellent job of keeping me safe. (It’s some five hours later now, and there’s a nice bruise from the second hit. Everything still works as it should, though, so I don’t think there’s any severe damage.)

I might have escaped damage if the visitors’ first catcher didn’t have to leave after a collision at the plate. They got a runner in a rundown between third and home. With the runner heading home, the catcher got the ball a few steps in front of the plate–right in the runner’s path. The runner forced his way through, knocking the catcher over as he tried to apply the tag. The catcher went down in pain, the ball rolled away, and the runner touched home.

There was no malicious intent on the runner’s part, so it’s a legal play. Hard, but clean. Unfortunately, it left the catcher with an injured wrist. He was taken to a hospital and returned halfway through the second game, his arm in a sling. He fractured his wrist (either in the collision or when he hit the ground) and he’ll be out for a couple of weeks. That kind of puts my bruised elbow in perspective, doesn’t it?

Opening Day win

Our meager spring training didn’t hurt our Opening Day performance. We beat Vlaardingen Holy 12-5 on their own turf to win the first competition game of 2008.

It was evident from the very first pitch that Vlaardingen didn’t have their best guy on the mound. He started the game with a hit-by-pitch, yielded a stolen base on his second throw, and balked our lead-off guy to third right after. I was hitting second today but didn’t get anything to take the first RBI, so I settled for a walk on a full count. I stole second on the next pitch and our number three guy hit a ground-rule double for a quick 2-0 lead. We went on for a bit and had a comfortable 5-0 lead when we took the field.

Our defense took a while to get going. Vlaardingen wasn’t hitting the ball particularly hard; we were simply a bit sloppy in our fielding and throwing. The worst example was a two-out grounder to me at short, which I misfired to first. Instead of recording the third out, I allowed two runs to score. Our pitcher struck out the next guy to limit the overall damage to four runs.

We batted through the order in the next frame–including a single by me through the hole between third and short–to climb to a 10-4 lead. Our pitcher never gave the home team much of a chance to come back for the rest of the game and our defense was pretty much flawless after the first inning. I made up for my error somewhat by forcing a runner out at second on a grounder to the second baseman (not hit hard enough to turn a double play, unfortunately), and throwing out two batters at first on grounders to short (a neat backhand grab on one of those, followed by a long throw from the hole–those are always fun to get).

I regret to say I also got my first strike-out today. I got a full count once again (my third at-bat and my third full count–Vlaardingen’s pitcher couldn’t get rid of me easily) and fouled off a pair before swinging through a high one. It was one of those pitches that an eager batter will sometimes chase. I’ve thrown them for strike-outs myself, so I should have seen it coming…

As I dug in for the fourth time, the umpire (a good one, and a nice guy on top of that) asked if I was going to get another full count. I said I’d try. The pitcher wouldn’t let me, though. His 1-and-2 offering came way inside and I couldn’t avoid taking it on the hip. That was my first hit-by-pitch of 2008, following my first hit, walk, strike-out, stolen base, run, put-out, assist and error. Not a lot of firsts left for the coming weeks… We’ll certainly try to hold off on our first loss for as long as possible.

We’ll have our home opener next Sunday against the Gophers from Maassluis, who also won their first game. Vlaardingen will visit us for the return (we’re playing each team twice throughout the season) on June 15.

First (and only) spring training game

We finally got in a spring training game. Weather has been pretty abysmal throughout March, and none of our scheduled games took place. With all the rain we got yesterday, I wasn’t sure when I went to bed whether we could play today. Fortunately, we could. It was still cold (around 10 °C or 50 °F), but the sun shone the whole time, so it felt nice enough.

I’m in a different team this year than I was last year and I’m playing in a league at one level down. The alternative was to play one level up, because we won the championship last September and earned a promotion to a higher league. I think I’ll have more fun at the lower level, so I opted to switch teams.

I was back at my favourite position for the first part of today’s game: shortstop. It looks like I’ll be playing there most of the time this year. I’ll also spend time on the pitcher’s mound, either in relief, or as a starter if our regular guy is unavailable. I pitched the last two innings today to get some game vibe at that position as well. The results were mixed. I allowed one unearned run the first inning, but my control took an early exit and I could hardly throw a strike the second inning. I’ll have to work on that.

On the offensive side, I wasn’t faring much better. I was too eager in my first at-bat and went fishing on a slow 1-2 pitch for a third strike. I hit a grounder to short the next two at-bats, both of which got booted by the shortstop for a reached-on-error. I ran into another strike-out my last time up when I couldn’t check my swing on a high 2-2 pitch. That came after fouling off four pitches, so combined with the ground balls, the good news is I’m seeing the ball and making contact.

The competition starts next Sunday. This one spring training game will have to do to be ready for it.