I love baseball and softball. I have been covering the sports for about 13 years. But the ins and outs of the games are not black and white. Or at least it doesn't feel that way.
I still feel like some coaches and fans think that advancing to second on a passed ball or wild pitch goes down as a stolen base in the books. It doesn't.
I saw one school this year had 17 steals for one game on their official stats. That seems like a lot for one game. But I could see 6 steals, 5 advanced on wild pitches and 6 advanced on passed balls. Or any other combination.
Then there is the play when a runner is on third and a player at first gets to second without a throw. That's technically not a stolen base either. That's considered a catcher's or fielder's indifference.
I'm listening to more and more broadcasts of games this summer as my hours have gotten cut and I am told not to attend as many games as I once did.
And in those broadcasts, some folks still say the score wrong. You always say the high score first, even if that score belongs to the team you are not affiliated with. It's never 2-6. It's always 6-2.
On a game I watched last night the announcer said the batter had a two-run single but the play was a ground ball that resulted in a throwing error. That's not a single. Or an RBI. Those two runs scored because the ball was thrown past the first baseman.
Another pet peeve is when I see someone single with a runner on second and the batter gets to second because of a throw home. That's not a double. That's a single with an advancement on throw.
We could debate whether certain plays are hits or errors. And that's the only one we can debate. A lot goes into it, and I will admit that I am harder on players than most. The players are wearing gloves. So the argument that the ball was simply hit too hard is not valid to me.
I will give credit to the defender if they have to move to get to the ball and just didn't. But if you misplay a ball hit at you because it was "hit too hard," it's still an error.
I also learned something this week myself. I was watching a game where a runner was on third and the ball was hit in the infield. The defensive team gave up the run and threw to first but made an error doing so. Because the run would have scored anyway, it is OK to give that batter an RBI despite there being an error.
That is like a fielder's choice RBI or a ground out to the right side that resulted in a run.
All sports have their faults with rules and such.
The block-charge call in basketball is a hot debate these days. The "over the back" call in basketball is a tough one. Even though the rule is actually called "displacement."
In football, we still don't know what a catch is sometimes.
But the sports that allow for the most judgement calls are baseball and softball. Right or wrong, I think we need to be more consistent with the rules. And we need to figure out how to teach the rules to people who still struggle with them.
The other day, I saw statistics online of the same game. One team had itself having seven hits, while the other team had their pitchers giving up three hits. That's a four-hit difference. And the pitching team's pitcher was only charged with one earned run.
So there must have been differences of opinion on whether the hits were hits or errors. But I don't see the difference being four that often.
There are a ton of different examples. I am sure some coaches just aren't sure. But how many others are padding stats for their players?
I would suggest listen to a baseball broadcast on the radio. You can learn a lot about the game by just listening.
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