Round 4 Results
Cam Gleeson, Monday, 11 May 20099/05/09, Round 4 1sts LTUBC 7 def Forest Hill 2 Round 4 saw us come up against Forest Hill who were undefeated so far. In the top of the first innings they managed to string together 3 hits and a walk and put 2 runs on the board to go to an early lead and put us under a lot of pressure. We bounced back immediately with 5 hits and 2 walks to score 6 runs and control the game from then on. Jack pitched well again shutting down their hitters after the first innings and Jeoff Thai in his first game for the club came on in relief and kept them scoreless for 2 innings. While we should have been able to manufacture a couple more runs we were never really threatened. We only made 1 error for the game, this was our first error for 3 weeks which is a fine defensive effort. Our hits were spread around with Alex, Mashy, DB all getting 2 and Carl, Jimmy and Patrick 1 each. We now get to play some teams lower on the ladder and we need to win all of these games and establish ourselves in the top half of the competition. Cheers Chris 2nd IX Forest Hill 17 LTUBC 0 Whilst I appreciated the poignancy and satirical aspect of Bill Fenton's "Statistics and oh, how they lie" (2/5) I must draw your attention to the fact that sometimes statistics say it all. Us – 2 Hits, 4BB, 1HPB, 5 Defensive Errors, 8 Runners on Base, 0 Runs Them – 8 Hits, 11BB, 1HPB, 0 Defensive Errors, 27 Runners on Base, 17 Runs 'nough said!! Peter Wilson – Shaky Ground Thirds Waverly 14 LTUBC 8 Oh Dear. Done again. Poo. A good start overwhelmed by a train wreck of errors and Marcel Marceau batters. Heads may well roll, but it's not worth talking about here. Instead, let me take issue here with baseballers putting themselves at a huge disadvantage at bat through intemperate and injudicious fashion choices. Baseball pants dragging on the ground may be ghetto cool in your 'hood but do you realise that they probably take 50 points off your batting average? History show us that many of the fashion decisions people make are made in ignorance of the origins, or indeed effects of their choices. Take the craze for wearing jeans (a clothing style itself born from young people imitating dirt-poor gold miners who bought the cheapest, shit pants they could afford) so low that one's underwear is put on prominent display for the unfortunate bystander. This fashion originated in American prisons as a signal that the wearer was a particularly friendly, amenable chappie, happy to share with his fellow inmates. (Kinda puts a different slant on dudes similarly attired slouching around Northland eh?) Bottled water as a fashion accessory originated in a few especially happy nightclubs where patrons ingested party drugs with dangerous side-effects that could be minimised by abnormally high water consumption. From rainbow coloured trance dances to everywhere in a trice - as the ordinary Joe and Josephine sought to emulate the style of the fashionistas welded to a water bottle. A secret symbol of one's cool sexuality goes mainstream, bigtime. In the late 1990's a couple of Major League stars decided that they were too cool for school, so they wore their pants hems down to their cleats. All around the world imitators took up the fashion, and before you know it, everyone's cuffs are dragging on the ground. Way cool. Way stupid. Baseball knickerbockers with long socks/stockings were invented (in 1868*) as a means to speed up one's base running, eliminating flapping flannel trousers. Then batters realised that wearing their socks high, as close to the knee as possible, gave the umpire a strong visual reference point to the lower limit of the strike zone. (Script city and team names were positioned to do the same for the upper limit from 1914). Umpires are human. Make it easy for them and they will call better. Why would you hide your knees from the umpire? Why would you make it easier for him to call you out on the low ball? Never mind - you and your pants look smokin hot, trudging back to the bench. Those original stars? They could hit .350 in a deep sea diving suit. Now I am not saying that like builders-bum pants and bottled water, long baseball pants are a signal of a special interest in one's fellow gender, but I am saying they are dumb. Check it out next time you watch batters at the plate - how large does the strike zone look for someone wearing long pants as opposed to someone wearing them the correct way? Pretend you are an umpire. Squint up your eyes until you are almost blind - hey, you know it makes sense. Knowing why fashions happen may help you make better choices. On and off the diamond. Play ball! If you doubt the veracity of my thesis or if you are just interested in baseball history visit here: History of Major League Baseball Uniforms: Have a captain at every MLB uniform style here... The proof is in the pictures...  Smart Yankees  Dumb Yankees * "When the 1868 Cincinnati Red Stockings introduced knickers to the baseball uniform, suddenly and somewhat shockingly much of the players’ legs were revealed to the public. Indeed, Cincinnati’s team nickname was the result of the very colorful and very visible stockings worn by the club. As club president Aaron Champion later recalled, “The showing of the manly leg in varied-colored hose … [was] unheard of, and when [team captain] Harry Wright occasionally appeared with the scarlet stockings, young ladies’ faces blushed as red, and many high-toned members of the club denounced the innovation as immoral and indecent.” While some may have objected to the new look, ballplayers quickly embraced the style, and the bold change in baseball pants resulted in an important new element of the uniform: stockings." Bill Fenton  Andy Kafka
Always hustling, we will miss Andy Kafka at LTUBC and wish him good luck in Germany. This week La Trobe Uni Baseball Club bids farewell To Andy Kafka, Andy is heading back home to Germany. Andy was a B Reserve Premiership player with The Eagles in 2008, and played in the 3rds in 2009 . Keep hitting Andy, your enthusiasm for the game will be missed as will your sense of humour, hope to see you soon, from everyone at La Trobe Uni Baseball Club. Fourths ?
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