Reason # 4,344 on why I love Baseball

I love Baseball, but you probably do as well if you’ve made it here to this website.

I don’t feel the need to write multiple times a day here, there are plenty of great writers that earn a living doing such a thing and they do soooo much better than I ever could.  But when I do write, it’s usually because I feel a need to.

Tonight it’s because one of my favorite writers Derrick Goold conveyed a story that resonated so much with me as one of the reasons why I love Baseball so.  One little moment, probably no more than 3 minutes of what is typically a hour affair makes all the difference in the game.  Heck, at this point it could be the difference in making the team…if it’s the regular seasons it could be the difference in staying up at the big leagues or making the playoffs or in the right moment winning the World Series.  Three minutes of a game.

I’ve taken the liberty of adding an excerpt from that Post-Dispatch article here (please forgive me, there is a link at the bottom t make it up to you).

In the fifth inning, the Cardinals and the Dominican Republic were tied, 1-1. Rasmus, batting ninth, reached base with a walk. On the first pitch to leadoff hitter Skip Schumaker, Rasmus takes a lead, and La Russa reads the Dominican as watching Rasmus to steal. They are eyeballing him to see if he flinches, if he lurches, if he does anything to give away his intentions. He does not. The pitch is made, taken, and Rasmus eases back to first base.

With Schumaker up — a lefthanded hitter — and speed on base in Rasmus, the levers La Russa likes to pull all lined up, so he signalled: Hit & Run.

This is the lead that La Russa lauded this morning. Having received the sign, Rasmus takes his lead from first. The Dominican team has fixated on him, watching him for any hint that he’s going on this pitch. If he settles in a half stride further away from the bag. If his hands are fidgeting, if he’s bouncing on his feet — anything that any number of young players do once they get a sign to do something. They are reading Rasmus to see if there is a play called and what that play might mean.

According to La Russa, Rasmus did exactly what he did on the pitch before. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Team Dominicana doesn’t do a pitch out, doesn’t do anything to shoo Rasmus back to the bag and, La Russa assumes the next day, believed that Rasmus was just doing on that pitch what he had done on the previous pitch. He didn’t “do anything different,” La Russa said. Rasmus sold status quo with his lead. And then, with the pitch, he was off …

Schumaker scalded a grounder through the hole opened on the right side of the infield. Rasmus sped around second and reached third, and then scored the go-ahead run on a groundout. The Cardinals scored two runs in the inning, pulling away for good.

Makes the hairs stand up on my neck.

If you’re a patient person, Baseball is the most beautiful of symphony’s being played.  Mr Goold’s insight makes me love the game even more.

Via Birdland via @dgoold via The game itself