A Long Season

It is a long season.

You have probably heard that more times than you can count, if you are a baseball fan. It is, mathematically, the longest season of any professional sport. 162 games in 6 months, each lasting 3-4 hours, give or take an hour here and there. That's the most time spent on the field of any sport. So, we hear, quite often, about the long season.

The length of the season, just by adding up days, doesn't really approach the problem of the Long Season, though. Those 162 games are played six or seven days in a row, on a regular basis. The limit on the number of consecutive games played? Let me give you the official wording:

(12) No Club shall be scheduled, or rescheduled if practicable, to
play more than 20 consecutive dates without an open day. A rainedout
game may be rescheduled to an open date in the same series, or
to an open date at the end of the same series, if (a) the open date is
a road off-day for the visiting Club, and (b) the rescheduling does
not result in the home team playing more than 24 consecutive dates
without an open day.

Yes, twenty day in a row are possible in the regular conduct of business in the MLB. Have you ever worked twenty days in a row at your job? Even if your job isn't the most demanding in the world, how would you think of your job at the end of a twenty day stretch. I would call it a grind. I might include a few curse words before the word 'grind', but 'grind' would be my general feeling.

Baseball is a long grind.

Top of the 4th, Lineout SS

The play that led to this post is pretty great. With a man on first base, Brett Cecil delivers a pitch that gets ripped to the right of Yunel Escobar, and he makes a nifty little play to snag it on the fly.

You can hop to the MLB.com video of the play to see him in action.

Brett Lawire, Safety Tips

Brett Lawrie.

He's kind of been a full sentence, a complete statement, since he arrived in the big leagues. He is an in-your-face, give 100% all the time player. He makes other players more quotable. He appears to not care much what anyone else on the field thinks about him. Twitter users who follow the Blue Jays have a hashtag- #jerkball, which refers to skills with an attitude to match. It fits Lawrie's style of play perfectly. I think people identify with him, because he doesn't seem to be at work when he's on the field, he's still a big, powerful, hyper, kid out playing in the yard. It's easy to trade places with Brett Lawrie. Imagine hitting a grand slam home run, in front of twenty thousand people, a homer that brought your team from behind to up by three runs. Wouldn't you love to run back to the rest of your team and do this?

Now you and I, we can watch Brett from a safe distance, and marvel. We don't have to be the guy to talks to him after he tries to steal home, off a right handed pitcher, no less, and fails. The long term happiness of Lawrie and his less intense teammates depends on them finding ways to get along in close quarters.

This team is led, we are told, by Jose Bautista, a man whose bat is larger than life. So how does 'the man' deal with 'the kid'. He plays it safe, that's how. After becoming familiar with the aftermath of a Lawrie home run, Jose took precautions as below:

As with airplane seats, in the event of a Lawrie Home Run landing, dugout pads can be used as an emergency safety device.

There is a genuine magic moment here, one which makes me feel closer to my favourite team.When the long grind of the season has the players looking grim, drop back in and remember this little moment of fun.

Shout out to http://bluejaysgifs.tumblr.com/archive for the latter images.

8th inning, leading 8-2

When you and I have a day off, it might involve a little housework, maybe kicking back and watching some TV. Maybe a little shopping at the mall. When a baseball player has a day off, he still has to go to the office. Then he has to watch all of his co-workers do their jobs all day. Sometimes, if he's lucky, his boss will ask him to finish an important project, or to work the rest of the day for somebody who got sick. Any of those things would still constitute a good day off for a baseball player.

Sometimes, things get tense, and the score is close. Other times, a pitcher might be throwing a no-hitter with all eyes on them. Those are tough days to be on the bench, showing solidarity through the intense moments is probably almost as draining as being out there.

The worst time to be on the bench, especially in a televised Major League Baseball game, is when your team has run up the score. There is danger lurking, a danger unlike anything I experience in my work. People will, in a heartbeat, be willing to make you look like an idiot on national television.

From twitter uesr @spookylish