Baseball questions on an off day

By Jeff Orvis

We're a couple of weeks into the new Major League baseball season and while I try to watch at least a little bit of every televised Cubs game, I'll admit that their slow start has caused my brain to wander a bit. After all, there's only so many bases-loaded, nobody out futile innings even a diehard fan can stand.

Even though we're only in the first month of the season, we've already had one ugly brawl incident that has prompted an eight-game suspension for one of the combatants and a lengthy stint on the disabled list for a high-priced pitcher.

One of the most enduring things about baseball is tradition. I suppose ever since the first guy picked up a ball and pitched to a guy holding a stick, there has been the potential for a brawl. The pitcher hits the batter, the batter somehow knows that the pitch was on purpose and suddenly, we have 40 or 50 guys spilling out of the dugout proving just why they chose baseball instead of pro boxing as a career.

In this most recent incident, everybody on both teams, even the relief pitchers, bullpen catchers and coaches jogged to the center of the field for the melee. Generally, these things are limited to heated words, pushing and shoving and finger-pointing. Sometimes, somebody gets hurt when the dust settles. That was the case this time, when the injured party, the pitcher who was attacked, broke a collarbone. But unless there was some way to determine he was the instigator of the fight, he will still get paid during his recuperation. This guy is one of the highest paid pitchers in the game. How would you like to be the general manager trying to juggle this budget?

I suppose there's no easy answer on how to curb these childish outbursts. But this is a different era. With the amount of money in salaries being floated around these days, something has to be done.

The thought of baseball tradition and practices brought to mind some other questions I've been pondering. Maybe it's because I never quite understood the intricacies of the game, or maybe it's because I'm sometimes a stickler for otherwise meaningless detail.

Have you noticed how, in the past few years, it seems like whenever a pitched ball is thrown into the dirt, the umpire hands the catcher a new ball? I understand that you don't want a dirt spot on the ball, since it might give an advantage to the hitter. But in the old days, the ump would simply rub the dirt off the ball and keep it in play. Time was when each of the balls was rubbed up with a specific mud from the Delaware River before the game to get the shine off it. Is that still being done? I wonder how many balls are used in a game on the average?

I suspect that some of the hardest workers on a team on game days are the bat boys. You usually see at least a couple of youngsters, ages 12-16, hustling new bats out to a hitter, etc. Do these guys ever travel with the team? I suppose that most teams who are on the road use bat boys from the city they are playing in, assigned by the home team. But maybe when school is out for the summer, at least some of the home team bat boys would also get a chance to travel with the team. And in this era of six-figure minimum contracts for the players, I would hope they would remember the guys who did the dirty work for them all season and tip them generously at the end of the season.

Speaking of road trips, I wonder if players still share hotel rooms on the road, or do they each get their own room? I suppose a few of the stars get their own room, or suite. But what about the guy who has just been called up from the minors?

When that pitcher I mentioned earlier in this piece is rehabilitating and getting ready for action, one of the exercises the trainers might put him through is something called a “simulated game.” You hear it all the time. Joe Blow looked good in his simulated game today and will be back soon. Does he face simulated hitters? Does he have to go through simulated plays when opponents are on base? Does a starter have to play a longer simulated game than a short reliever?

I'll bet that many fans haven't paused to consider some of these questions. Maybe when my Cubbies start winning, I'll tend to focus on the action on the field and not attempt to find something else to think about.

In closing, maybe these baseball thoughts are especially relevant today, as we observe the 65^th anniversary of the first day that Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier and became the first African-American to play in the Major Leagues. By all accounts, it was a tough road for him for at least a few months. But there are undoubtedly thousands of pro players of minority races at the Major League and Minor League level who owe him a debt of gratitude.

Dodger team owner Branch Rickey may have been the greatest visionary the sport has ever known.