Some thoughts on baseball others being tired of cold and wet…”more games are lost, than won…and why coaches get fired for the sake of Christian example.
From a Hilton hotel in East Lansing, Michigan…because the dark skies and intermittent rain really are more annoying here than they are at home.
Michigan…ahhhh, Michigan, where people probably have the time to read those thick Michener novels because they’re confined to their homes until Memorial Day. I can truthfully say that in more than a decade of covering Big Ten baseball and coming to Michigan…I can’t remember there ever being one pretty spring day.
I’ve seen sunny days when it was 38 degrees and the wind blowing (from the north) at 20 miles per hour. And I’ve seen rain…lots and lots of rain. And the skies here aren’t just gray, they’re charcoal. On a good day you could bag a limit of geese.
And to that point, after all those years, and the Buckeyes’ current 9-26 record, we get noticed by those who cruise Google looking for something to read about Big Ten baseball.
Out of the blue on Thursday a Michigan State man (he had an MSU hat, anyway) introduced himself at MSU’s McLane Stadium and said:
“I read your columns to move the season back to play in warm weather to give baseball and baseball players a fighting chance.
“Let me add,” he said, “that a month ago this stadium had a foot of water on it from the floods, and that wouldn’t happen in June. But like you say, no one cares.”
Kick the can……
The internet is a remarkable tool. And you never know who’s reading!
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I quote hall of fame manager Casey Stengel a lot because Casey lived in a baseball age where young players played to win baseball games, and not for NIL money and draft status.
The old man made a name for himself during his working days because he had good players with the New York Yankees. It was hard to lose with Mantle, Maris, Whitey Ford and Yogi Berra.
But after taking over the expansion New York Mets in 1962, they lost 122 games, and he said: “Finding good players is easy. Getting them to play as a team is another story.”
And: “More games are lost, than won.”
And to those points I’ll make this corollary about what I saw earlier this week during a high school game between St. Henry and Coldwater, playing out of the Midwest Athletic Conference, in Mercer County, Ohio.
Neither team’s starting pitcher came anywhere close to throwing 90 miles per hour. They just threw strikes – pitched to contact, and allowed the eight position players behind them to record the outs. Neither struck out more than four hitters in the game, and combined there were only five walks in the game. The plate umpire called called a reasonable, generous strike zone and the game lasted an hour and fifty minutes, because there were a lot of 20-minute innings.
I think of that as I watch college games where pitchers try to impress pro scouts with velocity, players can’t bunt, strike out ten times a game, and infielders make a routine ground ball look like a Top Ten play on Sportscenter.
I look at lots of stats online, and I wonder how many college teams would have better records if they simply played like a good high school team. Throw strikes…catch the baseball…half the strikeouts…and simply put the ball in play.
Indeed, Casey…more games are lost than won.
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There are some interesting reader responses already to Jeff Gilbert’s Saturday feature on the firing of Cornerstone Christian basketball coach Babe Kwasniak by school administration, alleging that he was not enough ‘Christ-like’ in his coaching methods.
And I’ll share this. Coaches with a personality like Babe Kwasniak wear thin in today’s culture, and usually because of something other than not being enough like Jesus Christ. Actually, none of us are because I know the New Testament and the scripture that reads “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” It says nothing about how you talk to your kids during a timeout.
“I prayed for a 6’10” center to transfer in over the summer that gets more than four points and two rebounds a game. Because if one doesn’t, I’ll be praying for a job this time next year.” – OKC basketball coach, Abe Lemons
Ironically, a similar action occurred in the early 2000s at Troy Christian when people got crossways with football coach Steve Hunsucker, who beat #1 Covington in the 2002 playoffs that year and took the the fledging Eagles to a district final game with Hardin Northern.
Soon after, Hunsucker was gone, some said because he had made football within his group of athletes a bigger priority than the mission of the school. None of the principals are around anymore so it’s hard to quantify, nor does it matter. It’s been twenty years.
There are a lot of amusing stories about the conflicts between being competitive and ‘Christ-like’, and none better than the one attributed to former Oklahoma City University basketball coach Abe Lemons.
Once in the heat of a conference title race, Lemons’ Oklahoma City University team lost a critical conference game and he was asked to have his team join the winning team in a post-game prayer.
Afterwards, the wife of the Dean of Students confronted Lemons and told him how impressed she was with his humility and faith after losing such an important game.
“I wonder if I might ask what you prayed about?” she asked.
“You sure can,” Lemons responded. “I prayed for a 6’10” center to transfer in over the summer that gets more than four points and two rebounds a game. Because if one doesn’t, I’ll be praying for a job this time next year.”
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