"Lady, I'm not an athlete. I'm a professional baseball player" (John Kruk). Saying that baseball takes no athleticism is like saying Michael Jordan was bad at basketball, it is false. For example, have you ever seen Addison Russell, the Chicago Cubs shortstop, lay out for a ground ball and capture it, then bounce up from the ground and make a ridiculous throw to first? Making a play like that takes athleticism from another world, Addison needed to possess the hand eye coordination to snag the ball while parallel to the turf and he had to get up and make an acrobatic throw to first. Incredible. Not only does it take this kind of athleticism to make top ten plays, but even on the routine ground ball. Even though people might say baseball is …show more content…
Fielding a baseball while relaxed makes it 10,000 times easier than fielding the ball all tense and nervous. I just tell myself over and over in my head to stay relaxed and do not think too much. After I relax myself I start to come in on the ball and be aggressive with it, I always remember Coach Davidson telling me to not let the ball play me, take the easy hops and stay aggressive with it. "For starters, charging forward and attacking a ground ball cuts down on bad hops and allows you to keep the ball in front of your body" (Clark & Tulowitzki). Being aggressive greatly improves many players fielding skills, like Troy Tulowitzki who loves persistent aggression when fielding ground balls. He committed only 6 errors in the 2011 season which gave him a .991 fielding percentage, an elite percentage in baseball. Coming into the ball with rhythm and small steps also helps me out a great deal, "That is, Right foot, Left foot, Field the ball. This is the rhythm you want to have as you field the baseball. It will keep you squared up to the ball," (Bernier). I like to think of this reminder while I field baseballs because not only does it give me a good tempo but it also helps keep my fielding smooth and
Is baseball America’s pastime? For the major leaguers maybe, but for college athletes it seems more like a new age video game. The introduction of high dollared aluminum bats produce football like scores, higher statistics, and a percentage of danger to each and every player on the field. The NCAA has changed the regulations of the bats so far and should look further into to making another change to wooden bats.
Baseball statistics are meant to be a representation of a player’s talent. Since baseball’s inception around the mid-19th century, statistics have been used to interpret the talent level of any given player, however, the statistics that have been traditionally used to define talent are often times misleading. At a fundamental level, baseball, like any game, is about winning. To win games, teams have to score runs; to score runs, players have to get on base any way they can. All the while, the pitcher and the defense are supposed to prevent runs from scoring. As simplistic as this view sounds, the statistics being used to evaluate individual players were extremely flawed. In an attempt to develop more specific, objective forms of statistical analysis, the idea of Sabermetrics was born. Bill James, a man who never played or coached professional baseball, is often credited as a pioneer in the field and for coining the name as homage to the Society of American Baseball Research, or SABR. Eventually, the use of Sabermetrics became widespread in the Major Leagues, the first team being the Oakland Athletics, as depicted in Moneyball. Bill James and other baseball statisticians have developed various methods of evaluating a player performance that allow for a more objective view of the game, broadly defined as Sabermetrics.
Many people might think that swinging the bat straight through the ball would be enough to hit the ball a decent distance off the bat. There's many more mechanics involved in the swinging process. Muscle has only a small part to play in the swinging a bat for power. There are two types of mechanics involved while swinging a bat, Linear and Rotational. Rotational mechanics are the dominant source of power in the swing. Out of the rotational mechanics come the two forces that help generate the speed and power of the swing, torque and the other comes from the energy of rotation. Speed from the energy of rotation comes from the path that your hands follow as you swing the bat. The speed generated by the circular rotation from your hands is like a ball at the end of a string, as long as your hands are moving in a circle then the ball continues to accelerate in a circle. So the bat will also move in at an increasing speed as long as your hands are following a circular path as you swing. Any foward movement of the hands or body in a straight line won't add to the overall bat speed.
Right now in America, the world of sports is constantly changing and growing to make the sports safer and fairer. People want sports to be as exciting and thrilling as before, but without the human error that may turn some baseball fans away. Along with this fear, people also want every sport to be as fair as possible, and by doing this most sports have incorporated an instant replay rule. This spring will be the first that the review rule will be in effect, it is a radical decision and game changing because baseballs history is so rich and its structured has not been changed in so long. These changes are not without skepticism though because people believe that the game has been so successful and before being “fair” was not the biggest priority of the game. By adding this rule, baseball’s fairness will be protected in a way it was not previously, but this set of rules is not without skepticism by people who believe there is nothing wrong with the game now.
Every pitcher has mechanics; mechanics is a good name for it for the mechanical motion which is gone through generates force. “The pitcher’s arm acts as a lever which gives him mechanical advantage, increasing the force.”(1) Let’s look at the transfer of force through the wind-up. A good pitcher hits what is known as the power triangle, this power triangle looks like this: “The lead or glove arm is up at shoulder height and the shoulder is closed. The lead foot has landed on or slightly across the mid-line, the throwing arm is in the high cocked or L-position with the ball facing back toward the shortstop and the head is level and in the top center of the triangle formed by the two feet.”(2)
When you strike a bat against a ball it sends vibrations, much like the vibrations acting on airplanes or bridges, which travel in waves through the bat. This motion is important to understand because every vibration the bat experiences takes energy away from the ball's speed as it leaves the bat.
Baseball is not a difficult game to comprehend, but it can a very long time to achieve a high level of performance. Usually one starts playing this game at a very young age and the first thing they start out with is throwing. Throwing a baseball involves exploiting all major muscle groups in the body to generate a large torque on the arm that will in turn create a high potential for speed when it is released.
Baseball and football fans needs to know exactly how physical of a game baseball truly is, alongside the mental part of that the game goes up against a competitor at it's highest skill of play. Football, it is anything but difficult to see that there is more physical contact. They are able to hit each other, they need to wear overwhelming gear, and the pace of it is quick. Football fans see the hard physical contact and the wounds. In football, it is about who is the most grounded, who is the quickest, who can seat the most, and so
Baseball is known as America’s national pastime, and has been played for over 100 years. Baseball can be a lot of fun, but is also extremely challenging to play, especially when trying to hit a 90 mile per hour fastball. I am a very devoted baseball player myself, and over the years I have learned numerous key things about the game. Baseball does not only require physical strength to hit and throw the ball, but it also requires a great mindset, such as, mental preparedness, concentration, and a positive attitude. Mental preparedness separates the average baseball player from the elite ones.
Baseball is a very well known sport and often known as “America’s pastime” and softball is highly similar, but with a few key differences. Many people just assume that the sport of baseball is more difficult than softball, but don’t actually know the specific parts of each of the two. Also, if you’ve never played one or the other sport, you shouldn’t be assuming anything at all in the first place. Although many assume one may be harder than the other, baseball and softball both have particular factors which make them both complex in their own way.
Ever since the creation of Major League Baseball (MLB), baseball has always been considered part of America’s pastime. A crucial role of American society was also included in baseball, segregation. The color barrier in baseball was broken on April 15, 1947 by the Brooklyn Dodgers when Jackie Robinson stepped on the field for his first at bat. With such a large part of American society now becoming integrated, many Americans were questioning their emotions, some were inspired by such an act of courage and others were filled with hatred towards a minority. “Professional baseball has become the laboratory to test American principles of equality and fairness.” , with this being said, baseball was a way for American’s to test the limits and their
There aren't as many spots needed in baseball which makes it a little more easier and isn't time consuming such as wrestling is. Baseball is more like holding a pitch right and with the correct fluent arm motion. When wrestling is more like shooting a sweeping single and swiping the other leg out placing them on their back or stomach. Batting takes time to learn and lot of it. Its confusing if they drop their elbow on their swing and attack the ball with their hands it will take many reps to fix it. Baseball is where players get a rude awakening. No matter how amazing athletes are or think they are they always have bad technique somewhere. More than likely players will grow up playing that way. Although once they get a little higher it hits them, and it hits them hard. All those bad reps come and hit people by surprise when they got to restart from the beginning.
A travel of over 3000 miles for some, a 210 mile drive for me, just to arrive at the biggest gathering of over 1,500 twelve year olds; all just to play baseball. The only place that would be suitable for such an event is Cooperstown Dream Parks, every baseball players heaven. Cars have come to Cooperstown from everywhere for this week long tournament. I met children my age from all over the United states. I became friends with kids from Ohio, Illinois, California, I even met a player from Puerto Rico who barely spoke any english. The windows of everyone 's car decorated with the names and numbers of teams and players. Excited baseball teams spill from their Barracks and hustle toward the already crowded seating area. Festive music played over
Baseball also has more icons than football or basketball. Some of baseballs icons are Pete rose who had 4256 career hits, Babe Ruth who had 714 career home runs or Barry Bonds who had 73 home runs in a season (Boyd 154). When thinking about football names like Joe Montana or Dan Marino come to mind. Those names aren't as big as a Babe Ruth, they aren't even as big as Michael Jordan. Jackie Robinson was the first African American baseball player (Duckett 1). Basketball and Football never had anyone like Jackie Robinson who showed their passion for the game as much as Jackie did. There is no story like it in any other sport, Jackie Robinson was ridiculed greatly and yet he still played. The history of the sport is another reason of why Baseball surpasses all other sports as America’s
For many years, baseball has been a male dominated sport and still is today by the limited amount of female baseball players and the nonexistence of women’s league in the MLB. Women are categorized into a similar game to baseball known as softball, thus arguing that women do not have the same physical ability as men. During the rare times you would notice a female baseball player or any female athlete, society is very quick on labeling these females as lesbians, dutch or dyke. This exemplifies the inequality of gender roles within the sport culture as society struggles with the acceptance of female athletes because they are portrayed to be weak and pristine. It is also argued that baseball has been stereotypically represented to be more of a “father and son” game since at most events, it is more likely to see a male individual bring other male friends for a guy’s night out watching the game of baseball and drinking beer. Rarely would you ever see a father bringing their daughter to these games mainly because of the stereotype of sports being a manly thing in which creates the stereotype of women to be interested in less aggressive activities such as dance. Thus, it is proven that Sports revolve around men causing them to be interpreted as masculine activities in which women should not participate in due to their feminine qualities that are perceived as