Why, oh why, is body armor of any kind allowed? Baseball has been played for thousands of years, and for most of its history, it was never necessary nor allowed for a hitter to stroll up to the batter’s box dressed like Sir Lancelot. There’s already so much offense in the game as to be ridiculous. Why do we give hitters any more of an advantage than they already have? “Well, they could get hurt, you see.” Of course they can get hurt. They’ve got a hard, dense object being thrown at them at speeds approaching 100 mph. Don’t wanna get hurt? Play tiddlywinks (of course, Barry Bonds would insist on wearing a thumb protector).
And while I’m ranting, I’m sick of this idea that it’s okay for a batter to be allowed to “step out” whenever he dang well feels like it. “Oh, but my wittle batting glubs came all loosey-gooesy, and I gotta make 'em all tight again.” Umpires should enforce the rules of the game and not allow this kind of crap. Move the game along. I got things to do later!
Now, onto the commentators: stop saying such crapola as “Dizzy Grove has a 10-3 record against the Kansas City Kornpickers over the last nine years” like it means something. Who cares? Teams turn over so much these days that it’s simply not relevant what he did years ago. Or, “Digby Dinger has been very effective against Fyvus ‘Freight Train’ Finkle in his career, going 4 for 6 with three home runs.” Six at bats ain’t enough to tell anything by. Take a Statistics class, ya morons!
And finally, since I’m a Mets fan, let me address this to Tom Seaver (maybe you other Channel 11 fans can relate): you often make good points about the game, and you usually don’t drive me batty with them until at least the fifth inning, but you gotta stop repeating yourself after the third or fourth time. And I’m not talking about over the course of the game. I’m talking about a single point you make on a particular play. I’ll get it the first time. Trust me. If I needed things repeated over and over, I could always start listening to my girlfriend again!
Sir Lancelot wore one elbow guard and a shin guard?
I’m hardly a Bonds apologist, but if pitchers can’t throw up and in on account of the elbow guard, then they should think of something else. Baseball is a game of adjustments. And it’s ridiculous to deny a player protection if a part of them is particularly prone to injury. Should John Olerud be forced to wear a regular cap on the field?
I agree. The batter can not call time out himself; the umpire must grant it. I know that, the guys in the booth know that, the pitcher knows that, but the umpire never seems to. Once the pitchers comes to a stop, the ump shouldn’t grant time after that point, unless the pitcher really is taking forever. Having to stop mid-pitch is frustrating, and I’d imagine in the attempt to convert a specific pitch to a generic toss, it runs the risk of arm/hand injury.
Like throwing down and in? Then the batters will come out with thigh pads!
As a baseball player, you should know coming in that there are risks, as there are in all sports. Football players know it; of course they wear much more protection, but they get hurt badly a lot more also. And I don’t address helmets in the OP, just body armor.
Good luck getting that rule passed! As long as owners are paying multimillion dollar salaries, they are going to want their investments protected. As long as the players are making multi-million dollar salaries, they are going to want to protect their livlihoods. Let them wear all the armor they think they need…it will just slow them down. I would add a rule that says if you strap it on in the batter’s box, then it goes around the bases with you.
I totally agree on the time-out issue.
Given the insane amount of stats generated by baseball, you are just going to have to live with the meaningless pronouncements. Besides, it gives the geeks something to do with their time.
Anybody, ANYbody has to be better than Chip Caray for the TBS Braves announcing team:
Chip (in a low monotone voice): Low ball for a 1-2 count…make sure to catch *The Shawshank Redemption * on after the game…here on TBS.
(con’t monotone) Chipper Jones takes another ball. After The Shawshank Redeption here on TBS, make sure to catch the encore presentation of The Shawshank Redemption. Here on TBS.
Tony Armas winds up for the 2-2 count…Chipper swings…(even more monotone voice)…that’s outta here. Tune in tomorrow here on TBS when the Cubs are in town, following an episode of “Sex in the City”. Here on TBS. Looks like that homer was the game winner, as I see everyone’s walking off the field. TBS.
I haven’t listened to Caray enough to pick up on all the promotions for TBS they do, but I gotta tell you I love, love watching the Braves games on TV. The silences, the crowd sounds, the calms before the storms. I prefer the games to be interesting, not the commentators.
Oh, they’re the best broadcasted games on TV. If they could get Harold Reynolds, they’d be set. As a fantasy sports player, they easily have better stats and scores than ESPN does - better than Baseball Tonight’s and not just the ESPN2 ticker. They show scores/stats every 20 minutes, and show all homeruns, all RBIs, all relevant pitching stats, and other misc. things some geek in Atlanta thinks I need to know.
CC: [monotone] Nomar takes one inside. Make sure to stay tuned after the game to TBS for Rain Man* starring Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman. Swing and a miss, the count is one and one. [/monotone]
Yes, I actually checked the listings. And the Braves suck.
Help out an unknowledgable brit* here. What advantage does it give a hitter to wear padding?
*And the fact that we’re taking padding seriously should tell you something, if you know the number of fights started by some brit jerk saying “If Yankees are so tough, why do they wear 100lbs of armour to play rugby?”
In my mind, Caray is still sitting in the booth commenting on the grounds crew well after all the mikes have been shut off, the janitor has shuffled through the booth, and the lights have been turned out.
[monotone]Well it’s well past 3:00am and I suspect the umpires are going to call this game on account of darkness. And the fact that *An American President * is being shown on TBS here on TBS - which by the way is airing An American President, to be followed by The Shawshank Redemption. Here on TBS. Don? You there, Don?[/monotone]
The players that wear armor are typically the players that crowd the plate. By that I mean that the player will lean very far in, which makes the strike zone seem a bit smaller for the pitcher, and makes the outside of the plate easier to reach. Pitchers don’t like it, and they’ll buzz you for it. Wearing armor makes those really far inside pitches much less scary, and won’t make you back off the plate.
There are two tradeoffs though to wearing armor and in my mind they negate the OP’s premise.
With armor donned you’ve restricted your flexibility and ability to swing freely, thus lessening the probability you’ll get a hit. Maybe this and the fact you can crowd and shrink the strike zone somewhat negate each other.
By crowding the plate you will invite, nay encourage, retribution. Armor extends only so far. Wrists aren’t armored, nor ribs, spine, jaw, fingers, etc, etc, etc.
Armor and the limited protection it affords is still quite unlikely to allow a hitter to bully his way to a base hit or more. It’s a reasonable protection that may protect and extend a career.
I’ve yet to comprehend it as some form of offensive weapon.
The same?