When he is done managing, Showalter would make a great Director of Competition. From rules around where the coaches can be positioned, 25 player announcement when rosters expand, onto outfield wall padding, he sees things the rest do not.
I love quirky ballparks, it is what gives the game its unique personality. I've been to games at just about every park in the Major Leagues (and many that no longer exist including the "original" Yankee Stadium, the Polo Grounds and Ebbets field all in 1955 when my grandfather took me at the age of three to all three New York ballparks and I got see Willie, Mickey and the Duke patrolling center field. Three more different ballparks you cannot imagine.) Ironically the home field advantage in baseball is far less than in the NFL or home court in the NBA where everything is "regulation". Momentum in baseball is today's pitcher...just give me sandy Koufax for one game and I don't care where I play.
4
With a runner on second base, the Washington Nationals' third base coach, Bob Henley, routinely risks life and limb by straddling the line with his back to the plate, oblivious to the hazards of a line drive, so he can give pickoff warnings and other signs to the runner. Perhaps the former catcher was hit in the head once too often.
1
As much as we fans of the SF Giants appreciate our current 3rd-base coach, Roberto Kelly, we now understand just how good his predecessor, Tim Flannery, was. AT&T Park's right field wall has ridiculous corners and angles. During the Giants championship run Flannery rarely waved home a player who was thrown out at the plate.
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The unique layout and dimensions of each baseball stadium is another very interesting factor that makes Baseball stand above the other sports, with their cookie cutter sized arenas. Luckily, those standardized stadiums built in the 60s and 70s (Shea, 3 Rivers, Riverfront come to mind) to help accommodate other sports and events, have been replaced. Of that group only the best of them has survived; that is Dodger Stadium which is only used for baseball. Too bad Yankee Stadium's present home plate is no longer where Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Mantle once waited for a pitch. So much of history has been lost with that "House That Ruth Built."
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This article nicely describes one of the things that makes baseball more interesting than any other major sport.
People say that in baseball nothing happens. That's true. Until something happens, and all hell breaks loose, many things happening at once, multiple variables having to be accounted for by multiple people, who must make snap judgements, often subject to immediate change as others' decisions come into focus.
I don't know a baseball fan who, after decades of watching the game, cannot say they still come away from a game several times a season having seen a situation that they have never seen before.
Third base coaches do not merely have to know the abilities of their and opposing players, they also need to understand players' understanding of the game and their psychological make-up. Two runners with the same speed can have entirely different tendencies to take the extra base. Two outfielders with the same arm might throw to different bases in the same situation. A game at the beginning of the season might call for a different play than one on the last day of the season with a playoff spot at stake.
In the stands at a baseball game, everybody has an opinion and a recommendation -- usually loudly expressed to the players, to the manager, to the umps, to the other fans, to the cosmos -- regarding twelve elements of every pitch, every play, every substitution, not to mention every umpire's call. Watch a basketball game and all you hear is "DE-FENCE!"
People say that in baseball nothing happens. That's true. Until something happens, and all hell breaks loose, many things happening at once, multiple variables having to be accounted for by multiple people, who must make snap judgements, often subject to immediate change as others' decisions come into focus.
I don't know a baseball fan who, after decades of watching the game, cannot say they still come away from a game several times a season having seen a situation that they have never seen before.
Third base coaches do not merely have to know the abilities of their and opposing players, they also need to understand players' understanding of the game and their psychological make-up. Two runners with the same speed can have entirely different tendencies to take the extra base. Two outfielders with the same arm might throw to different bases in the same situation. A game at the beginning of the season might call for a different play than one on the last day of the season with a playoff spot at stake.
In the stands at a baseball game, everybody has an opinion and a recommendation -- usually loudly expressed to the players, to the manager, to the umps, to the other fans, to the cosmos -- regarding twelve elements of every pitch, every play, every substitution, not to mention every umpire's call. Watch a basketball game and all you hear is "DE-FENCE!"
11
Ricky, while the first paragraph does begin with the left field corner, the photo does show the Pesky Pole, which is the right field pole. Sloppy editing at the Times, but the right info.
1
Great comment, Steve Fankuchen. To add to that, note that baseball is the only one of the four major sports where each and every stadium is different in some way or another.
There are major quirks which differentiate certain stadiums, and we know which ones they are. But some of the more minor - and less-noticed - differences might be: available space in foul territory; placement of bullpens (relative to fans as well as the field); distance from home plate to the various parts of the outfield wall; distance from the dugouts to the foul lines; overall configuration of the entire field; and more.
All of which makes baseball - at least in this way - more interesting than the other four sports, all of which have identical playing fields (except, perhaps, one or two hockey arenas, whose surface areas may vary slightly from the 80x200 norm).
There are major quirks which differentiate certain stadiums, and we know which ones they are. But some of the more minor - and less-noticed - differences might be: available space in foul territory; placement of bullpens (relative to fans as well as the field); distance from home plate to the various parts of the outfield wall; distance from the dugouts to the foul lines; overall configuration of the entire field; and more.
All of which makes baseball - at least in this way - more interesting than the other four sports, all of which have identical playing fields (except, perhaps, one or two hockey arenas, whose surface areas may vary slightly from the 80x200 norm).
2
Isn't the first photo in this story, of "the Pesky Pole at Boston’s Fenway Park" a photo of the first base line pole, not the third base pole?
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The Pesky Pole IS the foul pole down the first base line. The Pudge Pole is the foul pole down the third base line.
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Yes, the Pesky Pole is in the right field corner.
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Yes, it is. The Pesky Pole *is* the one in right field.
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