The Eight Great Myths of Baseball A USA-365.com Commentary by Mark Smith 7-6-2004

There is a correct way and an incorrect way to play every game and the beauty of baseball is that there are several correct ways. Many things you hear from bored announcers and ex-ballplayers about what a team or player should or should not do are not based in fact.

Many think that because they saw something work or because they did something that worked, that that's the way it should always be done. Baseball isn't like that. What works five times, fails 10 times. A good pitch is a bad pitch if the batter hits it. Here is another list of the eight great myths of baseball.

Myth #1.  Managers and coaches who 'force' pitchers to throw 120 pitches are hurting them.

The truth: A total of 120 pitches adds up to 15 pitches an inning for eight innings. If you cannot throw that many pitches once a week, you need to try playing second base. 

A quarter of a century ago, pitchers started every fourth day and threw 100-150 pitches. How? First, they threw the ball correctly, which is something that can be taught. Second, they simply conditioned themselves to do that. Of course, if you are limited to 100 pitches a start, you will be bombed if you stretch it out to 110 one day. Greg Maddux throws 100 pitches and he's done. Randy Johnson can throw 150 pitches. Sports talk radio's biggest simple-minded myth is that you have to pull a pitcher when he gets tired. You have to pull a pitcher when he becomes ineffective. That can happen after 10 pitches.

The truth: Teams bunt to make up for a lack of talent. 

Somewhere, baseball became obsessed with the concept of making intentional outs. If you cannot hit and you have no speed, then yes, you need to bunt EVERY runner to second base. But it won't matter because teams with no speed and no hitting win about as often as the Iraqi army and Howard Dean. Only losers bunt to stay out of the double play. That's the model of playing not to lose. Stealing a base and a hit-and-run are fundamental plays, too. If you waste a good hitter sacrificing a runner into scoring position, you are aiding and abetting the opposition. To bunt two runners along with nobody out is a big break for the other team. Your gift out plus a walk and a double play gets the other team out of a seemingly hopeless problem. If your batter is so bad that you are petrified that he will hit into a double play (and you can't just pinch hit), you are better off faking a bunt six times and getting walked or called out on strikes. Save the time spent learning to bunt and spend it learning to run the bases. Pompous announcers call the sacrifice bunt 'the way the game should be played.' They're right if the game is girls softball.

The Truth: Major League closers are stealing the money. The closer has to have a special 'make-up' because he might be racked with guilt. He has the easiest job on the pitching staff. 

You and I could pitch successfully if we only went into a game when we had the lead. The toughest job in baseball pitching-wise is to be in a tie game in the late innings on the road. The 'closer' NEVER pitches in that situation unless the game goes to extra innings. The 'closer' might be the biggest straw man in baseball. The starting pitcher who throws 120 pitches and faces the clean-up hitter four times leaves the game with a sore arm and a hard-earned lead. Then a guy who's been eating peanuts all day stumbles in and gets credit for retiring three desperate hitters. If the closer gives up a home run, it's said that he doesn't have the mental makeup to 'close out games.' But maybe he just gave up a home run. All pitchers do. If the manager or coach had the mental makeup to leave the pitcher who pitches the eighth inning in to finish the ninth inning, he wouldn't need a closer.

Myth #4. Swing at the first pitch because it probably will be a strike and it might be the best pitch you get.

The Truth: The pitcher knows you feel that way. Only hitters who lack confidence swing at the first pitch consistently. 

You're rarely going to walk swinging at the first pitch. You're almost never going to get ahead in the count. You are never going to check the velocity of the pitcher swinging at the first pitch. You don't know what his pitches do because you couldn't wait to swing. The truth is, that hitters with no confidence swing at the first pitch because they are afraid to fall behind in the count. Batters who don't want to think, swing at the first pitch and are easy outs most of the time. Plus, they help the other team win because they don't require the pitcher, who may or may not be in top shape, to throw eight or nine pitches. Teams that swing at the first pitch a lot almost always lose to teams that don't.

The truth: Any good hitter can bat third. Few good hitters can lead off. 

Put your top home run hitter in the No. 1 slot and you'll see it doesn't work. You need your fastest player to lead off. Understand that a hit by a slow player is great but it the requires a gift-out (a sacrifice) or two more singles to score the slowpoke. The Cubs were a .500 team until they got Kenny Lofton to lead off in 2003. In 2004, without Lofton or any other credible leadoff man, they were back around the .500 mark. Trivia geeks can scour the 130-year history of the game to find out when a slow team finished in first place but fast teams finish there EVERY YEAR. A single by a fast player opens up the stolen base option and the hit-and-run option. A single by a slow player opens up the double-play option. Plus, a fast batter leading off puts pressure on the defense and the pitcher when the latter two are most vulnerable: The first inning. The leadoff position is the only one where you sacrifice hitting ability for speed because you can't drive in many runs from the No. 1 position in the order. To bat your best hitter first is to waste that hitter.

Sacrifice bunts and wasting the 0-2 pitch don't win as many games as three-run homers and seven shutout innings. Folks who say this wish to sound like experts but the reality is that, at most levels of play, the team with the best pitchers or the best average hitters wins the most games. Especially at lower levels, that's just the way it is. I'm not saying that you shouldn't learn how to play defense but you can only field a ground ball or fly ball that's hit near you. Look at the teams that finish first in baseball. They are the teams with either one of the top batting averages or the fewest hits and walks allowed. Defense doesn't control baseball. Pitching and hitting do. You can have the five best defenders and the five smartest players. I'll take the five best pitchers and the five best hitters and eventually, I'll beat you like you were a dusty rug.

The truth: You also sometimes want to play with no outfielders. Or maybe, let's play with no gloves. Or night games without lights.

Sometimes in youth baseball, the manager, given a choice, chooses to bat first because he wants his team to get the lead before his pitcher has to go out to the mound. It doesn't make any sense. Since the beginning of time, ballplayers have wanted 'last bats,' meaning they get the bottom of the inning and can win the game in their last at-bat. Any manager who chooses to let the other team bat last is going to be a losing manager.

The truth: The major league baseball season doesn't really begin until after the Fourth of July. 

That's when everybody who's going to be healthy in time is healthy. That's when the weather wears on the pitchers and helps the hitters. That's when the law of averages (a key to baseball) kicks in and if you are any good, it will show. That's when the minor leagues start the second half of the season to give losing teams like the RailCats a much-needed second chance. That's also when the non-fans become bored and drift away. The inter-league play nonsense ends and the crosstown lunatics can go back to talk radio. It's also when football begins and the media drifts away from baseball, allowing teams to play without the overkill 'team' coverage (the Chicago Sun-Times had a 40-page section on the meaningless Cubs-Sox series) that actually hurts the sport.  

More than 70% of major league teams were less than 10 games out of 1st place on July 4 with 80 games to go. If you missed the entire first half of the major league baseball season, welcome, you still have arrived in time for the best part of the show.

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Revised: July 10, 2004.