August 20: Fundamentals

Ryan Ludwick just made the first out in the bottom half of the first inning. It was a towering fly ball to medium right field and he had plenty of time to get into position and wait for it to fall into his outstretched glove. His left arm remained at his side. He made the catch with ease, but since his arrival in San Diego, I've seen him drop two very catchable balls because of this lack of basic fundamental play and it's incredibly irritating.

I haven't played in an organized baseball or softball league for a few years now but it always really bothered me when my teammates would refuse to make the fundamental plays. I would get visibly and vocally upset when an outfielder would make a one-handed catch and people would wonder why. It isn't that it's crucial to use both hands when making a catch, but when a player fumbles a ball for no other reason than a lack of effort, it really pisses me off. You never know when that dropped ball will be the difference in the game.

When you have a group of coed twenty-somethings that get together every Monday night to get drunk and play softball, you can't necessarily be a stickler for fundamentals; which is why I took so much flack for being that kind of guy. I couldn't help it though. I don't know if my competitiveness in softball stems from an overall lack of talent at the level at which I would prefer to be playing, but it was rather embarrassing catching myself yelling at friends to use both hands after they had just made an out.

As I finished that last sentence, Adrian Gonzalez fouled off a first-pitch inside slider from a pitcher that had just walked the previous batter on four consecutive balls. No sooner had I started criticising the lack of reasoning had the Padres' announcer made the observation. Gonzalez ended up singling the run home so the foul became a moot point, but it upset me nonetheless. Am I good enough to be making these kinds of complaints? Absolutely not. Would I be able to lay off the inside pitch? Probably not, but I'm not being paid millions of dollars either.

These players should be able to make a catch with both hands. They shouldn't be swinging at pitches right after a pitcher walks a batter on four pitches. You're out there to make the basic plays and more but if you aren't playing fundamentally sound ball, that's not going to happen. Should I get so upset at my drunk friends during a softball game? Probably not. But a player who has dropped two balls within a month on a team that is making a push toward the playoffs? That's a different story.