ACCE Baseball

I love baseball, think its a great sport, probably the best sport, possibly the most perfect sport. Baseball is a pretty easy sport to understand, not too hard to learn to play, but impossible to master. Its a very elegant sport in the same way that simple, definitive science experiments are elegant.

We are in the midst of tryouts, there are some great players, some with potential, and some that just don't quite have it. Everyone has a good enough idea that they could come out and play a game and follow the rules. But thats the thing with baseball, it takes forever to master.

Its a true game of millimeters, game thats decided at the margins. The ubiquitous example is of batting average: You get about 4 at bats a game, so over three games you get 12 at bats. A struggling major leaguer would get 3 hits in those 3 games (.250). An all-star would get a whopping 4 hits in those three games (.333). Its consistently getting that one 2-4 game every series that makes you a man among boys.

Similarly, defensively you need to do it right EVERY time.

This is what its difficult to get across to my players, to my students. You can't take a day off (in the classroom), and you can't take a play off, or a pitch off, or an at-bat off. You need to 'do right' every time. I say need meaning in order to excel, they can go out and do whatever they want to and nothing bad would happen, but the point of sport is to push yourself and to excel. We've already said it at tryouts, but we are out there to win the championships.

It doesn't hurt there are only 5 teams in the league