Talking Baseball

Here it is. It was bound to happen at some point.

It is my first rant about the game and the way it is played here on Talking Baseball with the Traffic Man.

I am sick and tired of a couple of things that Major League players do while being paid millions of dollars to play the best game in the world.

 They are:

1.  Not running out ground balls in the infield
2. Not hustling after balls hit in the gaps or in the corners while playing the outfield
3. Not hustling while going on or off the field

I know that the list isn’t as long as it should be but those three problems are the ones that bug me the most when watching a game.  

Problem 1: I absolutely can’t stand it when players don’t hustle down the first base line when they think they are going to be out. This happened in a Phillies game a couple of weeks ago when Jimmy Rollins thought he was going to be retired on a routine pop up and the ball was dropped.

When he should have been standing on second base he was anchored at first because he didn’t hustle. Not one bit. If you want to make millions of dollars in this game and become a fan favorite then you need to hustle on every single play. He didn’t and Charlie Manuel benched him for the rest of the afternoon.

Finally someone made it known that a lack of effort will not be tolerated anymore in this great game of baseball.

Problem 2: I am sick to my stomach when I see outfielders jog after a ball that has been hit past them into the gaps or into the corners. Manny Ramirez of the Boston Red Sox is notorious for doing this. Come on people! Get off your fat butts and make an effort. It’s the least you can do for your fans and for your teammates. I know its not your fault that the hitter crushed the ball but you could at least make an effort to help out your pitcher.

Can’t we go back to the days when Griffey Jr. and Torii Hunter sprinted after every baseball hit their way and tracked it down. They both still do that now but they set an example for the rest of the league and they rubbed off on other players. Now there are only a handful of players who hustle after every single ball hit in their direction. We need hustle and efforts of 110 percent  again in this game. 

Problem 3: This might be one of my all-time biggest pet peeves. For Pete’s sake, please hustle on and off the field! So many players nowadays walk briskly off and on the field and take their good old time getting to their position or getting to the dugout. If Major League Baseball wishes to speed up the game then they need to speed up the motors of the players when they come on and off the field.

You can’t be that tired already! Put some pep in your step already! Get over yourselves. You are a bunch of prima donnas that want to get the most reward out of the least possible amount of work. Unbelievable. You are all role models for kids all across the globe. Don’t set a bad example that being lazy might get you somewhere someday.

Sorry for ranting but watching some of today’s games made me angry about how lazy some Major League players are today. I wish we could go back to the days of Pete Rose plowing catchers over in the All-Star game, the All-Star game, back when the winning league didn’t receive home field advantage in the World Series.

It was all for pride.

That’s all.

Pride and bragging rights.

Tomorrow we will return to our regularly schedule blog posts. Thanks for bearing with me while I wrote off some steam.

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