Jun 16 2008
Things that slow down the game
For today, yet another topic suggested by a reader! This one is about weird traditions in baseball - there are a lot of them.
- It’s the only sport where coaches are allowed on the field of play. Meetings on the mound, pitching coaches can walk out and give pep talks in the middle of the game. No substitutions are made until the coach literally walks out and tells the ump about the switch.
- The coaches all wear team uniforms. In no other sport do you see coaches dressed like the players. For what reason?
- There are even coaches standing by first and third base to tell the players when to run. I don’t know how necessary this is. They even have little boxes to stand in, yet no coach ever actually stays in them.
- There are bat boys to hand players their bats and give balls to the ump. They even get uniforms too. But as our reader wondered: do they get to keep the uniform?
- Do you really need people standing along the baselines to catch foul balls. They often miss the ball anyway and sometimes get in the way of the play. At some stadiums (like Philly) they hire good-looking college girls, yet in other places they hire old 80-year old men. And there are sometimes dangerous situations like what happened in the video below:
Please feel free to comment on these and other strange baseball (or sports) traditions.
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This was an awesome post. I always thought the same thing about coach’s uniforms. If you hear anything about that MLS team, make sure to let us know