Bench-Clearing Brawl

Baseball. Not a sport which is particularly popular in the UK, and being a fan would put you firmly in the minority in this country. This has always puzzled me; we are a nation of massive cricket-lovers, and yet have no time for a very similar game which is just as tactical, and guarantees to produce a result – something which cricket cannot always lay claim to. Being an American sport, tensions often run high and there was a perfect example on Thursday night, when the San Diego Padres hosted the Los Angeles Dodgers in an NL West matchup. After being hit by a pitch on the shoulder, Padre Carlos Quentin charged the mound and did not stop when he reached Dodger pitcher Zack Greinke, who broke his collarbone in the struggle. Chaos then ensued, as both benches cleared, and even the bullpen came to the defence of their team-mates. Following a few more minor struggles, all was calmed and a few players were ejected from the game. Events similar to this are not altogether that common in the game, but they do highlight much of what is wrong with America’s national pastime.

As I have already mentioned, baseball is immensely tactical, even to the point of stupidity as we saw in San Diego. And whilst full-on bar-style brawls are fortunately fairly rare, it is surprising the amount of times that pitchers intentionally hit the opposing batter in retaliation for a previous event. Nobody can say whether Greinke was ordered to hit Quentin by his manager Don Mattingly in response to his star player Matt Kemp having a near miss earlier in the game. In rugby, fights happen almost on a weekly basis, and whilst I am not condoning such actions, at least the players involved can claim to have been caught up in the heat of the moment, and lashed out. In baseball, however, it is more often the case that the powers that be make cool, calculated decisions as to whether to hit the opposing batters, and it is seen as just one tactic in the wider game strategy. To me, this is shocking. Deliberately attempting to hurt the opposition to gain an advantage should not be a part of any sport.

You will probably say that I am being naive and that such events are unavoidable and are commonplace in many sports – rugby being just one. But let’s put this tactic into context a bit. Look at NFL where, following the 2011 season, a number of New Orleans Saints players and coaches were reprimanded or suspended for taking part in what was known as Bounty-gate. In it, Gregg Williams the Defensive Co-ordinator was alleged to have ordered certain players on his team to deliberately attempt to injure members of the opposition. A huge investigation was launched into the affair, and a significant number of powerful people were sanctioned (including Saints’ Head Coach Sean Peyton). If you compare this to what has become endemic in the game of baseball, it is hard to find many differences. Yes, the potential for injury in NFL as opposed to MLB is perhaps much worse given the nature of the sport, but the principle remains the same.

I love baseball and will no doubt continue to watch it as long as there is a sun, but events on Thursday have made me question this great sport. It’s refreshing to see the players stand up for their team-mates and show a desire to win, but the consequences have the potential to send the sport in the wrong direction. Something needs to be done, and fast.

An Englishmen’s Guide to Baseball

As you may have already gathered, I am a Brit who enjoys baseball. It would be fair to say, though, that it took me quite a while (and a few hours on the internet!) to grasp the basic rules and stats of the game, and even now, after a good number of years as an avid follower, I am still coming to terms with the Infield Fly Rule and the like. I do, hope, however, to be able to provide an insight into the basic aspects of the game, from the English point of view.

The first thing to bear in mind when watching any American sport, not just baseball, is that things are about ten times more complicated than they should be. In cricket, we play 11 a side. In football, we have 11 players and 5 or 7 substitutes depending on the competition. In baseball, however, they play 9 a side. Apparently, this requires a ‘roster’ (I hate that word) of 25.   Oh, and there are also about 7 coaches to: manage the game, coach hitting (see ball, hit ball?), coach some pitchers, coach some other pitchers, coach the runners who have reached 1st base, coach the runners who have reached 3rd base… you get the point. Apparently baseball doesn’t do efficiency, but, on the plus side, they are producing a lot of jobs in a time of economic turbulence.

So, of those 9 players, 1 is the pitcher, and the other 8 are batters and fielders. But wait, only in half of the games. The other half play by different rules. The pitcher doesn’t have to hit in those games, they employ someone else to do that for him!

In a game there are 9 half innings (I know), in which each team bats once. The batting side is allowed 3 outs before they switch and the fielding team bats etc… Ok, fair enough. So, how do we get the outs? Well, you can be caught out, as is uncharacteristically logical, but what if the ball is hit on the floor? If they are running because they have to, i.e they hit it, or they are standing at 1st and they are forced to run because the hitter hit it – don’t worry, they are told what to do, by the base coaches so no thought is required there – then it is simply a case of getting the ball the base before the runner. If the runner is running out of choice, then you are not allowed to get the ball to the base before him, you have to ‘tag’ the runner. I get this. If a runner is ‘caught in a rundown’ going back and forth between two bases, then how are the umpires supposed to know which bag he is aiming for. Well done America. There can be up to 6 umpires by the way…

It is also possible to get more than one out on one pitch. Sometimes two, sometimes three. Don’t worry, I won’t bore you with the details, but be sure in the knowledge that it’s not as simple as it sounds.

So when it comes to the post match analysis, and the commentators are looking for some points of discussion, they may choose the batters’ average – the percentage of times they successfully hit the ball and beat it to first base. So if the batter hits it 2 times out of 4, then their average is 50 right? Sorry, no. It’s .500. Anyone with a basic understanding of decimal mathematics would tell you that that means he/she 1/2 hit it in 10 ‘at-bats’. So 1 in 4 is .250, and you get the picture. Whilst I know very little about the history of baseball, I cannot possibly imagine a scenario in which somebody decided to put down a number for one thing, but actually meant another…

And it’s not just the average. There are also an inordinate number of other measures of proficiency, most of which are abbreviated – ERA, WHIP, OBP, OPS etc… You could argue that the world of baseball is perhaps the most informed of all sports: it calculates your contribution relative to your next best replacement!

All in, baseball is one of the most complex sports, but one of the most rewarding. The games are long enough to really get involved, but not like 5 day test matches. And they play almost every day. In short, there are a lot of peculiarities when it comes to the greatest show on dirt, but these purely add to the idiosyncrasies which make the game so unique. After a few years I’ve learned to love it, perhaps more than cricket (however blasphemous that may seem) and I am already looking forward to April. Let’s be honest, it’s better than rounders…

Oh yeah, and it was allegedly invented in England.

Tour de France 2013 – Will Froome bloom?

Firstly, I would like to apologise for the fairly pathetic title, I’m not the most imaginative of folk… Nevertheless, the sentiment still stands, and after the announcement of the 2013 TdF route, it seems that it could be Britain’s third most famous current cyclist who rides into Paris in the maillot jaune (Wiggo and Cav being the other two of course).

Things didn’t look good for our favourite side-burned cyclist, as the initial picture of the 2013 route was one which include mountains – and a lot of them at that. The route planners wanted to add something special for the 100th edition of the most famous race on a bike it seems, and so they took the small decision to send the peloton up Alpe D’Huez twice on the 18th stage. I’m sure that prospect is more enticing for the fans than the riders… But the problem for Wiggins comes in the fact that there are only two time trials on the route this year, as opposed to three in 2012. Considering that he was so dominant in this area last year, this move is hardly surprising from the organisers, as his dominance meant that he had secured the jersey well before Paris. It also appears that will be more uphill stuff this year, and so we may find ourselves in a situation in which Team Sky and Dave Brailsford decide to support for the Kenyan-born climber over the Wigan-born champion. For what it’s worth, I would agree with Mr Brailsford if he made this move, as Chris Froome is most definitely the man who is best suited to lead Team Sky to a second yellow jersey in two years.

Now it’s not the point that Wiggins couldn’t reclaim the jersey, he probably could. Taking a minute or so out of his main rivals in both time trials could lead to a situation much like this year, where Nibali and co. were desperate to attack, made mistakes and so Wiggins, with the help of some of the best dometiques around could afford himself not be too worried about such moves. In fact, I would probably put some money on him to retain his title – he is one of the most in form cyclist around at the moment.

For Sky, however, it is Froome who presents the better option. He is a world class time-trialist, and will most likely finish a close second, third or fourth to Wiggo on stages 11 and 17. Arguably, however, he is the better climber, as was demonstrated on a couple of stages this year, where he had to reel himself in from riding on to a stage victory so that he could stay and help Wiggins. Who’s to say that he won’t be able to repeat such form again in 2013, where Bradley can deliver him with a couple of KM to go, from which point he can ride away, claim some seconds and secure the yellow jersey in the process? I know I certainly think he can. He was outwardly frustrated on a number of occasions by his obligation to wait for Wiggo in 2012, and without the added complication of choosing whether or not to ride for Cav on the flat stages, I certainly back Froome to bloom (sorry!) and to make it two in two for Britain in the Tour de France.