Despite the spitting, baseball is a gentleman’s game

Stay Safe

The backdoor slider, mentioned above, is a pitch that moves horizontally across the plate, giving a deceptive appearance that it will be outside, thus a ball, but cuts back over the back edge of the plate.

and use this pitch on an 0-2 count.”

“Baseball is like church. Many attend, few understand.”— Leo Durocher

The best way to understand baseball is to play it. I was fortunate that my father was my coach and taught me many things about the game, including fundamentals of fielding, hitting, throwing, cursing, and spitting protocols.

Baseball players spit. I don’t believe it comes from some physiological trigger requiring the body to spit as a defense mechanism but rather for appearance. Managers rely on good spitters to carry the game in critical situations.

It is fact that all great baseball players over the years were accomplished spitters. In game one of the 1988 World Series, in the bottom of the ninth inning. Dodger manager Tommy Lasorda needs a pinch hitter. He looks at his bench players, all wearing clean white uniforms—except Kirk Gibson, whose jersey is stained by tobacco juice, the result of two packs of Red Man over the course of the game.

“Grab a bat and get in there Gibby!” Lasorda shouts.

Gibson picks up a bat and limps to the plate where he fouled off several pitches before sending a backdoor slider over the fence for a walk-off win and a decent segue to my next point.

Baseball has a love for slang words about everything. From player’s nicknames to pitches, to game descriptions, baseball spares no effort to create new language opportunities.

Basic pitches are fastball, curveball, and changeup. Each has their own variation. A curve can be a “12-6” curve, breaking top to bottom, 12 o’clock to 6 o’clock. A “slurve” is a combination of a curve and slider. A slider usually breaks laterally, the slurve starts laterally, then dips. A changeup

Few pitchers have developed the ability to throw a knuckleball, actually gripped by the tip of the pitcher’s fingers and released in a way that causes the ball not to spin. It floats in the wind and where it lands is anyone’s guess. Former major league catcher Bob Uecker said “The best way to catch a knuckleball is to wait until it stops rolling and then pick it up.”

The beloved “spitball” is an illegal pitch that is moistened, originally, in the old days, by two reasons for a hitter to get chin music. One: during a previous at bat, he “went deep” for a home run and showboated while running the bases. It is not good to show the other team up during the home-run trot, including running the bases too slowly. He should expect chin music his next trip to the plate.

The second reason is sacrificial. If your team’s pitcher threw a knock-down pitch deemed intentional, and you are the first batter of the next halfinning, you should expect some chin music.

Years ago, toward the end of is a pitch gripped with three fingers rather than two and is thrown in such a way that it crosses the plate 10 or so MPH slower that a fastball to mess up the batter’s timing. If used too much, the batters will adjust and the pitch becomes batting practice.

Other changeup pitches include the forkball and the Vulcan Curve, a pitch gripped the same way Mr. Spock formed his hand when he said, “Go forth tobacco juice stain, to give the ball an erratic path as it approaches the plate.

The fastball is just that. Other names for the fastball are “heater” and “cheese.” A pitcher is said to be “bringing the cheese” when he’s on with his fastball and when he’s pitching well over the top, he’s “bringing serious cheese.”

Sometimes a batter will get “chin music,” or “serious cheese up and in.” There are usually my illustrious mediocre amateur baseball career, we were playing in a tournament somewhere.

During my at-bat, I got lucky catching a hanging curve on the bat’s sweet spot, sending the ball just barely over the fence and a free ride around the bases. My knees were pre-replacement and cartilage challenged, meaning every step was bone-on-bone. I limped around the bases and when I crossed the plate, I could see the catcher’s disdainful his face, meaning I was getting the chin music next atbat.

Two innings later, I walked to the plate and told the catcher and umpire that my knees were really bad, hence the slow trot, and pleaded for a low target. My request was granted and I got a changeup to the region of the buttocks. I tipped my cap, spit, and limped to first base. The pitcher spit and nodded. or

It’s truly a gentleman’s game.

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