'Time For Baseball To Pick Up The Pace'

This is a story of baseball and how it is a team sport. The book relates with the title by showing how this boy named Sandy Comstock that plays on the Grantville Raiders and has a big game coming up. It was against the Newtown Raptors. He wanted to beat them and become one of the best teams. By the time he knew it he ended up on the Newtown Raptors team and he was going to play is old team. It was kind of like a baseball turnaround.

June 19th, 1939 one of the New York Yankees and baseball's most famous first baseman, Lou Gehrig, was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis after six days of extensive testing. Fifteen days later on July 4th, 1939 Lou Gehrig flew to Yankee stadium in New York and gave his famous, “Farewell to Baseball” speech. The speech wasn't just for Yankees fans, but for all fans of baseball. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS for short, is a a nervous system disease that weakens muscles and impacts physical function, usually killing the person in two to five years. Gehrig knew he didn't have long. That's why fifteen days after his diagnosis Gehrig was standing at home plate in Yankee stadium telling all baseball fans of his retirement due to illness. In under 300 words, using ethos, logos, and pathos, Gehrig transformed how baseball fans viewed him, not just as a player, but as a person. Gehrig showed the world how strong willed and fearless a person can be in the face of adversity.

In the game of baseball more than any other sport, you really have to focus and think about what you’re doing on every single play. Of course there are parts of the game that become somewhat natural, but baseball is a game of fundamentals. You have to always be on top of your game and one step ahead of the curve, no pun intended. Every play contains different situations, which call for you to do an assortment of different things. You have to be thinking of what it is you’re going to do if the ball is hit to you, and what you do if hit to any of the other eight of your teammates on the field. Have you ever felt on top of your game, but for some odd reason you just couldn’t focus and preform at the best ability that you know you’re capable of? That’s what happens many times in baseball. You really have to focus and know what you’re doing wrong, and what adjustments to make to fix it. More than all other sports one little odd or unusual thing you start doing or change in your mechanics has a huge effect on the amount of production and performance out on that diamond. While hitting, throwing, or catching the ball, the simple extra movement or step you’re taking can cause a hundredth of a second difference in your throw, swing, or pitch, but this game is a game of seconds and that slight movement is the difference between a homerun or a ground ball, an amazing play in the field and an error, a strikeout or a ball

Thesis: The Fundamentals of baseball can result in a successful pitcher is proper mechanics, good arm motion to hit your target and lots of flexibility/mobility that can result in high velocity meaning speed.

My breakfast started to creep back up my throat as game time got closer and closer. I walked across the patch of grass behind home plate and was towered over by the 30 foot backstop with a huge net suspended from it. My bulging bag of equipment was beginning to make my shoulder hang. I walked down the steps into the cement dugout and placed my bag under the bench that spanned the entire length of the dugout. I sat down, laced up my cleats, and put my warm-up jacket on in preparation for batting practice. I stepped onto the grass surrounding the dugout to get the feeling of how wet the grass was. I dug my cleats into the grass and began my usual routine of taking certain practice swings as I gazed upon the press box in the wake of the backstop. Preceding the burn in my forearms, caused from the practice swings, I marched behind the dugout to the rows of batting cages to wait my turn in line. Pacing back and forth I knew I had to keep my nervousness to a minimum. I popped in a wad of Big League Chew and continued to

Major League Baseball is an organization steeped in tradition and custom. Nothing short of an Executive Order is necessary to alter the rules that govern the sport. While that may be a slight exaggeration, the foundation of the game has remained largely unchanged on the professional level for decades. That said, a recent change in the rules has stirred a bit of controversy among managers, players and fans.

From the sandlot to stadiums seating over fifty thousand people, the game of baseball has provided people of all ages with a

When you follow rosters, keeping up with the MLB lineups using information from sites such as FantasyAlarm.com, you know there are young pitchers making their way to the big show. Some of these pitchers clearly realize this may be their one and only chance to shine.

Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports wrote the article, “Players Must Pitch in to Avoid Pitch Clock.” Now Ken doesn’t disagree with it, it’s some of the players who do. He says that some players think it’s unnecessary, and they don’t want to get fined for violating the new rules. O.K I may agree with them on the fining part, but the pitch clock is necessary if they want to pick up the pace of play. If those players want to cry about it, then why are you playing the game?

“Baseball is America’s pastime, and that record is absolutely huge in the States.” This quote by tennis player Pete Sampras defines the reason Charles Alexander wrote the book Breaking the Slump: Baseball in the Great Depression Era. Alexander has complied a book about what baseball was like during the years when America lived in a time of great poverty and economic troubles. Alexander writes with the aim of writing a chronology of baseball and how it the happenings of the world influenced this sport. Baseball has had a great following and Alexander explains the National pastime in a way that feels like you are right there during the season. Alexander’s style, source base, and focus makes this book a great history of the time. He does miss a few things that weakens his argument that baseball remained strong during the crumbling thirties.

What it comes down to is the difference between the need to do something and the option to do something. None other than Bill James, a widely known baseball writer, noted that the perceived “strategy” is actually very “trite, predictable, and actually nonstrategic.” Instead of manager's deciding on what substitution, or lack thereof, can give their team an advantage, they are forced with situations in which they must bunt, must pinch hit, and must double switch. As James notes, "the American League game allows a true option, and thus true strategy." This means that whatever AL managers decide to do when it comes to offensive batting substitutions, they do so to benefit their team, not because they are forced to do so (Meehan, 2013). These substitutions, including the commonly used “double switch” - where a pinch-hitter is substituted for the pitcher and the next inning is substituted again for a relief pitcher, take up time in the game. It is significantly a problem in the MLB where the longevity and the slow pace of the game has caused many fans to get bored sitting through a full nine innings. Especially with the addition of instant replay, the game continues to get longer and it has become a challenge for many fans to watch an entire game. Brian Costa, sports reporter for the Wall Street Journal, wrote an article about the reasons for the length and slow pace of the game. He mentions that it has become normal for fans to complain about hitters stepping out of the batter's box, pitchers pacing around the mound and pitching changes. Red Sox Chief Operating Officer Sam Kennedy even states that this problem is one of the most critical issues facing baseball as we move forward into the next three, five, seven years (Costa, 2014). Joe Sheehan also wrote an article about the increasing

The versatility of baseball pitching machines is impressive; not only to many pitching machines allow the coaches to change the speed of the pitch from a fastball to a slow change-up the machines will throw different pitches, like curveballs at different

Baseball was called the “the national pastime” for the first time in December of 1856, years before the first professional team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings, even came into existence in the year 1869. Baseball continued to develop and gain popularity throughout the end of the 19th century. Baseball spread after the Civil War by prisoners of war and soldiers where it was encouraged by officers as a way to pass the time and it allowed soldiers to take their minds off the situation at hand. The soldiers went home and brought their new knowledge with them, spreading the newly popular game to their children. Thus, baseball found its roots and started to grow into its title of “national pastime”.

In order to Control the chance that is built into baseball. There are three main parts of

Thirteen years ago I picked up a big yellow ball, a long metal bat, and a love for the game of softball. Over time I joined recreational leagues, travel teams ,and fall leagues for softball dedicating a majority of time to playing and practicing. I think one thing that made me fall so deeply in love was the pace of the game. Softball is quick, there’s no time for mistakes, and frankly when and if you do make a mistake, your team suffers. Being coordinated is a must for this game of quick feet, fast reflexes, and precise plays. As a catcher I control the tempo of the game, and quick is the only thing I know. Throughout my decade plus three of playing softball I have learned how to be a quicker, more rational,