The TNT has an interesting article up, calling Jim Riggleman out for his lack of appreciation of what it's like to be a day-in, day-out professional baseball player.
If nobody minds, we'll take the other side of this one, and argue that Jim Riggleman does, in fact, have a good grasp of what it's like to be a day-in, day-out professional baseball player.
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Riggleman made a comment recently, which we'll run through the D-O-V translator: "Sometimes baseball players like to use fatigue as an excuse for poor performance. I don't usually buy it. If you're not swinging well, then get some help and fix your swing. But I don't really believe that physical fatigue is the reason that a guy struck out seven times in a doubleheader."
Riggleman followed up (again translated by me): "If we were wearing 30 lbs. of pads and helmets in Jacksonville, 95 degrees and 90% humidity, and a guy misses a tackle, well, sure. If we were an NBA team playing its 3rd road game in 4 nights, sure. But baseball isn't like that."
The TNT's response (translated by me): "Riggleman only played four minor-league seasons and couldn't even make the majors. How could he really know whether it's tiring? Now, here's how we know it's so fatiguing to play baseball... "
Larry, of course, doesn't give his own minor-league stats as a baseline against which to ad hominem Riggleman's arguments. ;- )
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Riggleman played college baseball ... was drafted 4th round by the Dodgers ... played 4 seasons in the minors and didn't pan out ... was given a minor-league team to manage ... shortly after, was 1B coach for St. Louis ... then managed (was THE manager) for nine ML clubs.
Because his own max games played in one year was 127, Larry doesn't think that Riggleman can relate to a long MLB season. He also doesn't notice that Riggleman is talking about MINOR league players who plead fatigue at game 100. :- )
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I love Stone's point about ML players taking 90 fastballs in stride, where you or I would be calling for the meat wagon. (Minors players do exactly the same thing.)
Without doubt, these guys play in tons of pain. (But call me the next time a player "takes a 95 fastball off the knuckles, winces, and trots to first.")
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Where's Dr. D on this? There is a reason that NFL players don't play 162. Do you know what that reason is? Football is far, far harder on the human body than baseball is.
NBA teams don't play 6 nights in a row. Neither do Premiereship teams. Guess why? Fullcourt basketball is much more tiring than softball or baseball are.
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Two of my best friends are 42- and 44-year old women, housewives, who run literally 5-9 miles per day, every day, and come back seemingly refreshed. There are a lot of people in their 40's -- not 20's -- who run daily, and run a lot.
I don't suspect that Ichiro finds daily baseball running to have a concetration-camp effect on him. I think he probably finds his baseball workouts to be a good way to stay in shape.
From an energy standpoint, probably if they wanted to, the Latin players could head south and play baseball year-round, like my housewife friends run year-round. Oh, wait...
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There are a lot of nicks and dings in sports, and the pros have crazy pain tolerance. The efforts these guys make in the weight room, and pitching with serious injuries, and so forth, are often .... heroic.
But Riggleman's point is well taken: just because you're jogging around on the grass on a nightly basis, as such, that doesn't mean your September splits should drop.
Industrywide, ML hitters' splits do NOT drop (significantly) in September. Sabermetrically, Jim Riggleman is exactly right. The fact that it is late in the year does not mean that a hitter has an excuse for playing poorly.
Riggleman wasn't out of line to call baloney on players looking for excuses. In fact, he was correct.
When ballplayers and managers say something that sounds funny, it could be the case that they have a light bulb on that we don't.
Cheers,
jemanji
I would think it has more to do with focus than fatigue. You're on the worst team in baseball and coming towards the end. it wouldn't be surprising if the guys were mailing it in, even if they weren't doing it on purpose. Physical fatigue, not really. Mental fatigue, quite possibily.
There probably isn't anything in sports that takes a tighter mental focus than pitching and hitting a baseball. Even subtle drops in concentration can kill yer.
Now that mental fatigue, especially playing on a loser, that's another subject. :- )
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In which case what we probably need is a Jim Riggleman in our ears, telling us we're still getting paid this week :- )
For an Adrian Beltre to try to play through a fracture in his thumb, with it getting worse all the time, well .... :shakes head: it's a level of sacrifice that many of us may never make.
Or for Erik Bedard to go out with a torn labrum and try to battle his way through five innings against ML batters...
Nobody's saying these hombres aren't tough.
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But Riggleman was evidently talking about healthy young 22-year-olds who go oh-fer and plead fatigue, just 'cause the writers and fans will nod sagely. Riggs wants to call baloney on that, and am not sure he doesn't have a point...
There's a lot to dislike about that article, starting with his mild denigration of Riggleman in his opening comments, through his assertion that pitching is an 'an affront to the natural contortions of the human arm'. Ya I get that pitching pushes the limits, but it's not like humans just picked up this throwing thing to play baseball...
IMO Riggleman was the M's best manager between Lou & Don, and it's partly because of how he calls 'em like he sees 'em, and his willingness to not pander to the athletes. Good on ya, Jim.
Sometimes I wonder if certain beat writers are speaking to an audience of approximately 25 guys...
It's not like Riggleman has been a baseball outsider, though, right. He had a very respectable career managing in the big leagues. Which Stone was careful to note ... before questioning Riggleman's knowledge of how baseball works, of course. :- )
"but it's not like humans just picked up this throwing thing to play baseball"
I would bet there's a case to be made that they did. Sidearm or underhand is the natural way and the way baseball pitchers started out. Where do you see people throwing overhand outside of baseball? People that didn't grow up playing baseball don't throw overhand-- usually sidearm.
Just a thought.
Seems to me that throwing a spear overhand is the most natural thing to do if you plan on killing something. Legend has it that at Platea a Spartan soldier killed the Persian general by nailing him in the head with a rock. Using a softball-like throw for that seems illogical to me. I did a search on youtube for rock-throwing protestors and quickly found a video of muslim protestors in Kashmir hurling rocks at security forces in an overhand fashion. I don't think baseball is particularly popular there.
Like EA mentions, spear throwing comes to mind. Also boomerangs, although I'm not sure if those are thrown more sidearm or not. And there are numerous beating/hacking type motions that are pretty similar to throwing, like swinging an axe to split wood, or hack up a freshly killed mastodon carcass. : )
No doubt, pitching pushes the physical limits and a lotta pitchers hurt their arms because of it. But I never pitched, and when I walk along the beach, I can't help but grab some rocks and chuck 'em in the ocean. Seems pretty natural to me.
although you can throw pretty damn hard sidearm (re: Persian general). Spear throwing is a good point... not other way to hurl those other than overhand.
