?? Baseball Season ??
ERWIN 2024 - 8th Edition
February 25
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Baseball is the great American sport.?
There, I said it.?
Fight me.
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Spring is emblematic with many things. New growth. New birth. New beginnings. For me, it will always mean one thing:
Baseball season.
Pitchers and Catchers begin reporting to Spring Training sites at the Major League Baseball level in mid-February. Winter Meetings and offseason trades and signings have sent new faces to new places. College baseball season has commenced. Tryouts and practices just started for high school teams. All win-loss records are reset to 0-0. Opportunity is in the air.?
It’s the most wonderful time of the year. (Sorry, Christmas season.)
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I have what some might call an “unhealthy obsession” with America’s Pastime.?
Just last night I watched Game 1 of UNC’s baseball series against ECU while looking to see when the 2024 Topps Chrome baseball card set releases. As I’m writing this sentence, I’m sitting in our coaches’ locker room at A.L. Brown preparing to depart for a double-header scrimmage while simultaneously managing a fantasy baseball draft spreadsheet. I will also be keeping tabs on UNC-ECU Game 2 and the Red Sox Spring Training game against the Orioles throughout the day.?
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Baseball is just a game, one created by humans for our own entertainment and as an outlet for our competitive nature. There’s a certain genius to its design, though, one that makes it unique among its contemporaries.
In most sports, there is a goal on two opposite sides of the playing surface. The team who can score the most points by getting the object (ball, puck, etc.)? in the goal the most wins. A generic concept, if you ask me.
That’s not how baseball works. Yes, the team with the most points wins… but the means to the end of victory are quite different. In order to score a “run”, a team must obtain baserunners. Any baserunner must reach 1st base, 2nd base, 3rd base, and home plate to score a run. Baserunners can be obtained in seven ways (feel free keep this list to quiz your friends in the future, if you’re so inclined):
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Beautifully complex, is it not!?
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One of the most beautiful aspects of baseball that most often goes unnoticed is the invisible one - the mental game.
Baseball is a game of scenarios. What actions would facilitate the best outcome at any given point in time? For example, if there is a baserunner on 2nd base with zero outs, the defense needs to be cognizant of several things - the handedness of the batter, the possibility of a bunt attempt to advance the baserunner to 3rd, the current score of the game, the size of the leadoff that the baserunner gets from 2nd base, the type of speed the baserunner on 2nd has, whether or not the baserunner retreats to the base after each pitch. The pitcher, meanwhile, has to be mindful of all of these while also focusing on throwing the best pitches possible to get the batter out and/or prevent the baserunner from advancing further. It can be a lot of pressure (as a former pitcher with chronic anxiety, I would know all too well), but the best pitchers are able to compartmentalize all of it and focus on one small task at a fraction of a time.
These are the things you don’t see on television, but if you have ever experienced them as a player in the past, the feelings are incredibly palpable.
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As for me, baseball has my heart for all of the above reasons and more. It was the first sport that I loved playing. My dad was my coach through all of my Dixie Youth Baseball playing days as a child. He passed his love to me and I made it my own. I grew up a Chipper Jones fan (Atlanta Braves 3rd baseman), but eventually adopted the Boston Red Sox as my team following their epic playoff collapse against the dreaded New York Yankees in 2003. Lucky for me, the Red Sox would redeem themselves in even more epic fashion in ’04 (look that one up if you’re unfamiliar… or watch the rom-com Fever Pitch).
Some of my fondest memories have been built around the game. My family used to take me to watch the Piedmont Boll Weevils games on July 4 week to see the fireworks (albeit they used to lie and say that the fireworks were for me - my birthday is on July 6). One year, I even had the privilege of running onto the field with the Boll Weevils for the National Anthem. Later in childhood, I would help my grandfather operate the scoreboard for high school games. Eventually, I would go on to play baseball at Kannapolis Middle School and A.L. Brown High School, where I would have a middling career with a few high moments (hitting a home run at East Rowan and starting my first game as a pitcher at Intimidator Stadium) and some not great moments (blowing a friend’s perfect game by committing an error at 1st base in the 7th inning —? still an occasional nightmare to this day). One could argue that baseball got me through college. My work-study job title was “Music Technician” for the UNC Baseball program — a job that I proudly retained for all four years.?
Now at the ripe age of 31, I have been an assistant coach at A.L. Brown under my former coach and lifelong mentor, Coach Empsy Thompson, for six seasons after one year of being the Kannapolis Middle School head coach (a story for another time… what a strange but valuable season that was!).
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More than anything, perhaps, baseball has been a constant in my life. It’s been a part of the best seasons and an escape during many of the worst. I’ve given much of my time and passion to the game over the years, as you can tell.
For whatever reason, though, I still can’t get enough.?
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In that case, here’s to the great American sport: ??
Fire up Centerfield by John Fogerty. Grill up the dogs. Lather on the sunscreen and be prepared for the rain. Hold the peanuts and cracker jacks (I’m not a fan). Remove your caps for the playing and singing of the National Anthem…
PLAY BALL! ?
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Happy Sunday, my friends ????
p.s. I have a problem. I know it. But I love it.