We've been watching the college world series recently. I was a little surprised because my wife has never shown any interest in baseball. I suspect she is watching it because nothing is going on with the Ducks or Blazers, the OSU Beavers are playing and several people we know are OSU alumni, and it is kind of a big deal, at least as far as collegiate athletics go. I am watching because I am idle enough that I can enjoy a couple of drinks while watching a baseball game with my wife.
This week the Oregon State Beavers are playing the Arkansas Razorbacks in the college world series. We watched the second game this evening. The Beavers won so they are tied at one each. Tomorrow's game will decide the championship.
I noticed a few things during the game, some of which I hadn't seen before. For any kind of real fan, they are probably old hat, but they were new to me.
Catchers Signaling Language
Catchers signal the pitcher using hand signals. That has been part of baseball since the beginning of time. I never really understood why it was done. I mean does the catcher have some mystic way of knowing what pitch would be best? Is he better able to read the mind of the batter because he right there next to him? I think it's silly, I think the pitcher is quite capable of making up his own mind. But maybe there is more to it, and that's okay. It's part of baseball and if that's the way they want to play it, it's fine by me.
However, the way I originally heard it was that catcher would make hand signs to tell the pitcher what kind of pitch to throw. For example a closed fist might mean a fastball and two fingers might mean a slider, whatever a slider is. Anyway, it was one sign per pitch and that was it. But tonight we are lined up with second base sitting 300 feet away from home plate, behind the outfield fence with god's own telephoto lens and we can see the catcher tweeting away. He's not just giving one sign, he's spelling out entire flipping paragraphs. The Beaver's catcher was just holding his free hand between his legs and making a sequence of hand signals. The Arkansas catcher was waving all over, slapping his knees, shoulders, chest, etc. What the flip are they talking about?
Baseball Royalty
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| Notice the blond woman wearing an evening gown in the upper left corner |
Bunt Technique
When I was a kid playing baseball the bunt was a valid technique but we never used it because first you had to know how to hit the ball and until you've got that mastered, learning to bunt is pointless. But! If you were to use it, is was supposed to be a surprise, you didn't give any indication that you were going to bunt until the pitcher had thrown the ball. These days, in college ball at least, it appears that you declare your intention to bunt before the pitcher has even thought about throwing the ball. Not sure what the rationale is here, but I imagine they've got a good reason for it, or at least an argument.
Fly balls
If you are attending a game, it behooves you to pay attention because sometimes a fly ball will land in the stands and if it smacks into you it's going to hurt. So whenever the pitcher releases that ball every pair of eyes in the stadium is going to watching to see where that balls goes. Can you imagine the amount of computerized processing power you would need in order to replicate that action by all those people? Watson would have his hands full, metaphorically speaking.
Broken finger
There was one guy playing with a broken finger. It was splinted and sticking straight out from his hand. It kind of looked like he was giving the pitcher the finger, except it was his index finger. You would have to be darn good at your job to be able to play like that.
The game
Arkansas made an error in the 8th (9th?) inning when three fielders converged on a fly ball and none of them made the catch. If they had caught it, Arkansas would have won and series would be over. Oregon managed to score a double play in the 9th to end the game.
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