Playing Baseball, hey that's better.....

It is wonderful to see so much baseball interwoven between the poetry blogs. I often feel the game is so poetic in itself. Amanda's comments about the Boston- NY incident and violence in general as it relates to baseball is of interest to me. As a historical student of the game, I can attest that this is nothing new. Yet at the same time, I think baseball displays a degree of civility that is not as common in many other sports. Certainly football and hockey are examples of a much more physical aggressive side.

There has been over the years even kind of a silly game that often occurs in baseball at the brink of these physical confrontations. Most center around throwing in on batters, which is of course a part of the game itself. A batter who believes he has been thrown at will occasionally feel the need to take a stand that he is not going to take this. Once a batter has committed to going to the mound, it is the job of the catcher to protect his pitcher from this batter. The game begins...

Batter heads to the mound - eyes and body motions reflect anger sending the signal, "I'm not taking any more of this crap... You don't throw at me..." all this time the batter is thinking, "where is the fucking catcher - come on, you are not supposed to let me touch your pitcher."

Of course the pitcher is supposed to look innocent and play the role of the victim here. "I'm just playing the game, minding my own business" of course he, like the batter, is wondering when his catcher is going to tackle the batter and stop this whole thing. This is how the little game should work, and often will. It allows the angered batter to vent, take a stand, not look like a woss, and no one gets hurt.
The DH has not helped to problem of throwing at players, because a team can't throw in on the offending pitcher if he never bats. Just one more reason I prefer NL ball.

I agree with Amanda, I want to see the game and not fighting. However, I don't believe that we are seeing more violence in baseball. At least between the players. I am more concerned about the growing issue of fan violence and I believe this is on the rise.

Sadly, my team is out (San Francisco Giants) after a fantastic season. Still, I live for baseball and there has been plenty of good ball played so far.