Funmurphys: the Blog

Kid's Game?

It's often said that baseball is a kid's game, or even a little kid's game, usually in response to a mental mistake on the part of a player. But baseball is better understood as a game you start playing as a kid to master as an adult.

OK, my son's baseball season has started. Each year they add more of the full rules -- last year the kids pitched for the first time, and this year the kids can steal for the first time. Baseball not only has a large set of rules (the coach was explaining the dropped third strike rule before the game, although the umps weren't calling it), it has even more techniques (each position has responsibilities that aren't spelled out in the rules and are much harder to learn).

And to top it all off, it's a difficult mental game. As the coaches stress to the kids, you have to know what you're going to do when you get the ball before the pitcher even delivers it. That would be easy except nothing happens for long stretches of time, and the mind tends to wander, especially those of children. So you trot out to your position at the start of the inning knowing where you are going to throw the ball if hit to you (infield to first, outfield to second) and you wait. And you kick the dirt. And wait. And you kick the dirt some more. And somebody hits the ball, but not to you. And you wait some more. And then somebody hits the ball to you, and where is that runner? Oops, held on to the ball to long and the coach is yelling. Do it as an adult, and the fans are yelling about baseball being a little kid's game.