A Baseball Rant

I went to a ball game last weekend and I just felt like ranting a bit about it. The game was between the Washington Nationals and the San Francisco Giants. I grew up in the Bay Area and have always been a Giant fan. Unfortunately, the Giants lost in the bottom of the ninth inning. It was a great pitching game as Barry Zito pitched for seven innings and gave up only two hits, and I am convinced one of them was actually an error. Unfortunately those two hits came in the same inning and led to the Nats only run against Zito. Well, back to my rant…

It was the top of the eighth inning and it was the first time that Barry Bonds came into the game. He was set to pinch hit for the second batter in the inning, Zito actually. Now I know that you are all probably thinking that this is going to be your typical Barry Bonds steroid rant. Well it is not. First off I am probably like most baseball fans and could care less if Barry Bonds sprinkled steroids on his Cheerios in the morning. Let’s be realistic, almost everyone in baseball, at the time, was doing steroids and since Baseball did not see the need to test for them or even have a rule against them, I am not sure we can judge the players for using them.

And for those people who say he cheated so the records shouldn’t count, I say shut the hell up. I think baseball’s biggest mistake is trying to compare players from completely different eras based on the stats. There is no way that an athlete from Babe Ruth’s era can be compared to an athlete from Hank Aaron’s era and neither should be compared to modern baseball players. Today’s players are different, the equipment is different, the ball parks are different and the game is different. It is no certainty that the great players of the past would be great players today. Do you need a better example? How about this…if the Green Bay Packers from the sixties had to play any of the last ten Super Bowl winners, under the current NFL rules, they would get crushed. There is no way that they could hang with the modern offenses and the sheer speed of the game today. That is just the way it is for all sports. Baseball is no different.

So don’t worry, I will not be berating Barry for doing steroids. I will however berate him for just being plain stupid. Now Barry is without a doubt one of the best hitters of his era. He was before steroids and he still is today. However, there is a time for hitting the long ball and a time to play smart. It was the top of the eighth inning of a 1-1 ballgame and the lead off batter got a hit. Barry came in to pinch hit and the first thing I noticed was that the Nats put “the shift” on for Barry. Now for those of you that don’t know what the shift is, all of the infield player move to one side of the diamond as they know that Barry is a pull hitter and is more likely to hit the ball to the right side of the infield. This left the entire left side of the diamond wide open. So there is a runner at first with no outs and the entire left side is open. All Barry had to do was push a ball toward third base and there wouldn’t be anyone to pick it up. He is the best hitter of his generation. How hard can it be to hit a ball to the left side? At the very worst, he would move the runner to second and he would be on first. There is also the possibility that the runner on first could have gone all the way to third since there WAS NO THIRD BASEMAN!

Worst case the Giants end up with runners at first and second with no outs. The next batter bunts, moving runners to second and third with one out. A sacrifice fly and the Giants take the lead. Game over. What did he do? He grounded out to the second baseman. I realize that there are times when you need to let your power hitter swing for the fences. However, there are also times when you should play small ball.

I have one other thing for Barry to think about. If teams continue to put the shift on when you come up to bat, all you have to do is keep hitting the ball where the third baseman should be and I guarantee they will stop putting on the shift. They do it because you are dumb enough to keep trying to hit into the teeth of the defense. Jackass!