I haven’t been a baseball fan since I was a minor league player myself.  And by minor league, I mean the two seasons right after tee-ball.  To put it in other terms, I would rather watch soccer or golf than baseball.  To be fair, I actually like soccer and golf, as a spectator and as a player.  I never really liked to play baseball, mostly because my dad was my coach and he was harder on me than anyone else on the field.  You watch your dad hit some grounders to the other kids and then he hits them at you twice as hard and suddenly your developing brain has to make a decision.  You either give up or you push through it.  Yeah.  I gave up.  And I don’t blame him for ruining the game for me.  I’m sure he was just trying to push me to be a better player.  It just didn’t work out that way.  Sorry, guy.

But enough about the woes of my youth and all that shizzle.  The reason I bring this whole thing up is because of the World Series.  It is arguably a more interesting face-off than other years given the teams participating and their respective curses.  Cleveland is…I’ve got nothing.  Nothing really positive to say.  I wrote a book in which I go into some detail regarding Cleveland so I won’t go down that same road again.  If you are a prospective publisher, you can definitely contact me.  Almost 0% of publishing companies will allow you to submit a book unsolicited.  Which means I would need to pay an agency to even get a shot at anything and I am not quite ready for that.

Anyway, Cleveland just won an NBA championship…somehow…so maybe they don’t need this win as much.  Sorry to my family members from Ohio.  Chicago has waited a bit longer anyway and I am sure they are more desperate for the championship as a fan base.  Ultimately, I don’t really care so I don’t know why I am going on about this.

What does bother me as I watched about 30 minutes of Game 1 is the old batting trend that still holds sway in the Majors.  I sit befuddled as nearly every batter stands unmoving while the first pitch zips on by.  But why?  Oh, my.  I sigh.

It is something players have been doing for a long time and my research says the percentage of swinging on the first pitch has ranged from approximately 25-32% since the 1980s.  So roughly for every three batters to the plate, only one will swing at the first pitch.  For those who don’t, the pitch more often than not appears to be a strike and this immediately gets the batter behind in the count and thus he has a more difficult road ahead.  He is more likely to swing at a following pitch which would be a ball, but he will swing and miss because of its placement.  Meanwhile, for the fewer batters that do swing on the first pitch, their success rates are higher in comparison.

To me, this is like going to the fair and playing the milk jug game.  But instead of trying 3 pitches to knock them down, you would tell them you only needed 2 pitches to be successful.  Maybe this is unfair because the game itself is rigged.  But still, I think this illustrates the point.  As a player, you are accepting a position of disadvantage.  Watching them JUST STAND THERE is really frustrating.  Have they ever watched Signs?  Swing away.  That’s all I’m saying.

Also, try as a sport to move things along quicker.  I’m still not going to watch, but other people would appreciate it.

Good luck Browns.