One of our team's three goals for the season is to learn more about baseball. For those who love the game, this process is a life long journey.
The thing I find most fascinating about the game is how the little things most often determine the outcome of a game. Many fans enjoy watching towering home runs or 95 mph fastballs. Yet, the scoring of a baseball game tends to reward somewhat less noticeable plays throughout the game.
The outcome of games often turn on plays that draw little attention. I'll be pointing out some of these plays during the course of the season. We already experienced a prime example during the first scrimmage game against the Hurricanes. With runners on second and third base and two outs, the Hurricanes hitter grounded a ball to shortstop. The shortstop fielded the ball, but fired the ball into the dirt. The first baseman, Ryan Knightly, cleanly picked the ball out of the dirt to retire the side.
Let's take a quick look at the baseball mathematics associated with this play. If Ryan wasn't able to field the errant throw, the Hurricanes score two runs on the play. The inning is also still alive with a runner on first base. Instead of trotting off the field with a 6-2 lead, the Warriors now face the tying run in a 6-4 game!
Another way of looking at this is that Ryan's play counts exactly the same (or potentially more because the inning would not have been over yet) as if he had hammered two towering home runs during the game! Just something to think about...
