MLB players show what baseball Spring Training is all about, despite umpires
After two years of lockouts, pitch clocks, ghost runners, and general upheaval in MLB, it is refreshing to see that the players still know what baseball is about
Give the other guy his fair shake. Earl Weaver nailed it when he said that the reason baseball was the greatest game was that “You’ve got to give the other man his chance.” These days, that sentiment is generally brought up in reference to the much-despised pitch clock.
But not today. Today, it is about playing when there is nothing left to play for.
And in the modern world that is concerned only with stats, only with numbers, only with winning at all costs, it is refreshing to see two teams play ball simply because they both wanted to keep playing ball.
When the Orioles and Pirates played their Spring Training game on Tuesday, there was a full stand of spectators, a full contingent of umpires, and of course the ubiquitous television cameras. You might be forgiven for thinking that the purpose of the game was to win. But the players on the field didn’t lose sight of what they were really there for.
When the Pirates fielded Josh Lester’s ground ball to end the top of the ninth, leading 7-4 at the time, that was the end of the competition. The fans duly began making their way to their cars, and the umpires left the field. Even the television commentators were starting their wrap-up chat to end the broadcast. But the Orioles took the field.
Spring training is about getting your work in, and Ofreidy Gómez hadn’t thrown to live hitters. So the Pirates took to the plate and played ball. No umpire, not much crowd, bemused television announcers, and two teams who played baseball because that is what they were there to do.
Some of the true-blue faithful in the stands stayed to watch a bit more baseball, albeit of the sandlot variety. Baltimore catcher Maverick Handley called the balls and strikes, perhaps a little too generously at one point, but the two teams worked an inning alone.
And do you know something? It was glorious.
No, I don’t mean that we should get rid of umpires. And of course you want the game to mean something. But in a world where many of the fans, most of the media, damn near all of the owners, and of course Rob Manfred seem to have forgotten what baseball is about, what makes it wonderful, it is refreshing to see that the players themselves, the men in the trenches, down where the metal meets the meat, still get it.
Playing when there is nothing left to play for. Giving the other man his chance. That is baseball. And that is why it is still, despite all the predictions of its demise, the greatest sport on earth.