There are so many different things I love about the game of baseball. There’s watching awesome batter and homerun hits that soar into the stands. I love players who steal bases and barely escape picks. The food, the Dubble Bubble, I’ll soak it all in.
If I had to pick my favorite part of baseball, though, it would be the pitching. Nothing in the game makes me whoop louder than a 101 MPH fastball straight down the line, or a curveball that breaks so hard you swear it’s being pulled around on a string. And when a batter swings and whiffs because the pitch is that good, I just lose it.
I saw a clip the other day of R.A. Dickey, a pitcher for the New York Mets, throwing one of the greatest knuckle balls I’ve ever seen. It floated so perfectly it was mesmerizing. The batter stepped into his swing, but the expression on his face was priceless when he realized how awkward the pitch looked. He didn’t bother following through.
It’s moments like that when I realize pitchers are the most skilled players on a team. Having an arsenal of pitches with all sorts of variations to each is not easy to keep up with, much less be good at. Throwing that little ball 60-feet-6-inches is a feat, and all pitchers in the big leagues, whether we think they’re good or awful, are better than most any of us.
Some might argue good pitching makes games less exciting, especially when both teams are having a good game on the mound. Less hits means less action, and everyone wants to see a little action. But good pitching makes games go faster. Good pitching puts watchers on the edge of their seats. Take that shutout Julio Tehran threw for the Braves Sunday night. That was a nail biter to the end.
The Bearcats have a great lineup of pitchers as well. Tate Lambert, Tyler Braswell, Jordan Davis and others can really step it up on the mound. Last Saturday for the Bearcats final game this season against Cairo, Braswell pitched three innings and only allowed a single hit. He struck out seven. Not bad at all.
Good pitching makes baseball games much more interesting.