RMJ 50 April 5

SATURDAY, APRIL 5 ● Houston, vs St. Louis

Got a great night’s sleep. After using an alarm for the better part of the last two months, it’s nice to sleep until you wake up. It’s also nice to start the day slowly, reading the paper and drinking coffee.

I guess I’m just a night owl. I like to start out nice and easy and build to full strength about 7:00 – game time.   

I came out early and found that it would take me about an hour-and-a-half to watch a two-and-a-half-hour game on the VCR. It actually took longer than that, because people kept coming into my office.

 

After batting practice today, Craig Biggio walked by and asked, “Are we taking infield?” I continued walking, as I did not want to pursue this conversation without some background information.

I stopped by the coaches’ room and asked, “Is there any reason why we shouldn’t take infield?”

“So, they’re onto that already,” Cubby said. “I wondered how long it would take.”

Ash chimed in, “So what’s the big deal about infield?”

“They don’t like to take it,” Cubby said.

“Why not?” I asked. “I always thought it was kind of fun.”

“I liked to take infield,” Ash said.

“Well, these guys don’t,” Cubby said. “Believe me, you are going to hear about this all year. Last year we took it every day, because that’s the way Dallas [Green, the Mets’ manager] wanted it. But you should have heard them complain.

“Todd Hundley was the worst. Seems like every day he would be crying, ‘I got a sore arm, and now I have to take infield and make it worse.’ The fact is, his arm wasn’t that bad. And we take the shortened version these days. He only has to make five or six throws, and he doesn’t have to throw hard.”

“I don’t understand,” I said. “Why wouldn’t a guy want to take infield? I mean, when I was playing, we might skip it if we had a day game and maybe we played 15 innings the night before, and everyone was tired. But this is the first week of the season.”

“I don’t think it’s a matter of being tired,” Cubby said. “It’s a matter of wanting privileges. A lot of teams don’t take infield much anymore. The Braves only take it the first day of each series.”

“How do they stay sharp?” I asked.

“They take a lot of ground balls and fly balls during batting practice.” Cubby said. “Plus, they’ve played together for a lot of years.”

“Leyland gave them Wednesday and Sunday off,” Bill Virdon said. “I don’t think they need much more time off than that. You can give them an extra day now and then, but you need to set a policy. Cubby is right: they’ll bug you every day about it.”

This seemed so strange to me. These guys spend way more time on conditioning — especially weight-training — than we did years ago. They also spend an inordinate amount of time taking extra batting practice. So why not work on fielding, too?

I guess it boils down to motivation. Even in my day, players were much more motivated to hit than to field. Batting is where the money is. 

Personally, I would rather practice fielding than lift weights. But these guys have some great-looking bodies. The reward of being fully buffed-out may be a tremendous motivator. Why else would these guys lift weights all the time? I really don’t think it helps them play better at all, and it could hurt their game in terms of flexibility and body control. And lifting weights is work. Hard work.

I mean, which would you rather do? Play a game of catch-and-throw, or bust a gut pumping iron?

I asked for suggestions, and I got a whole range of answers. Virdon thought two out of three days was reasonable. Cubby and Ash think we can take it every day, but that the everyday players can get someone to fill in for them when they are tired.

“Wednesday and Sunday wasn’t bad.” Bill said.

“Wait a minute,” I said. “Let’s talk about preparation. Do we really need infield? I see the infielders taking ground balls and throwing during batting practice. The outfielders take fly balls. But do the outfielders throw?”

“They throw early when they play catch, but they don’t throw to bases except during infield.” Bill said.

“How can we get them some throws to the bases without taking infield?” I asked.

I looked around the room and saw only blank stares.

Finally, Cubby said, “You could bring them out early.”

“Would they prefer that to taking infield?” I asked, and I got more tilted heads and blank stares.   

I could tell that this was not a problem that would go away, or have an easy solution. And I know that I am going to have to set a policy soon. I have already given them tomorrow off, because it’s a day game after a night game.

Where do we go from here? I don’t know.

           

We played another good ballgame tonight, and we won it 6-2.

El Sid got an early wakeup call when Delino DeShields hit Sid’s second pitch into the seats for a home run. The Cardinals just aren’t having much luck these days, though. They hit Fernandez hard for three innings and only got two runs.