100 Miles of Baseball by Dale Jacobs

Author:Dale Jacobs
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Biblioasis
Published: 2021-02-14T00:00:00+00:00

I count the fans in the stands and realize there are more people in uniforms on the field. There’s a group of three older men who look like retired farmers watching attentively, pointing out a good pitch or a strong play discerningly. They’re wearing tidy button-down shirts and clean ball caps. Any of them could easily be Dale’s dad or my grandfather. It feels comforting to have them in the stands tonight.

When you watch baseball at this level, you pare back. You’re not really thinking about things like spin rate or launch angle. Can the pitcher throw strikes is question one. And, if so, is he fooling the hitters with movement or can he throw the ball by them? Is there any deception? What secondary pitches does he have beyond the fastball? Can hitters catch up to a good fastball, especially a high fastball? Can they hit a curve or lay off a slider in the dirt? Do the players make good decisions on the basepaths? Can the infield pick it? Do the outfielders take good routes to balls? Can the catcher block pitches in the dirt? Throw quickly and accurately to second base? Are the teams sound in their fundamentals? At this level—the highest tier of amateur baseball in Canada—the answers are generally positive. Many of the Stars played college baseball at schools like Maine, Central Michigan, Madonna, Saginaw Valley State, Canisius, or Wayne State, and a number of the Selects will go on to play at similar schools, as their alumni have in previous years. A few will play in the minor leagues. It is, undeniably, good baseball and though the players sometimes make difficult plays, like fielding that in-between hop, throwing that lollipop curve, or hitting that fastball up in the zone look easy, those moments come in flashes. But events on the field are sometimes unpredictable, heightening the drama on every play, reinforcing again and again just how hard this game is to play.

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