Will posted: I coached at the same school for many years . I went to a game and watched from the stands. I lasted about 2 innings. It was like listening to sports talk radio. why is the coach doing this ? my kid is batting 8th? Why is this kid playing? etc etc .. I am sure the same conversation was going on in previous years. My trip to subsequent games usually found me down one of the foul lines.
Didja give any thought as to why all that talk goes on? Since I try to get as close to behind the plate as possible to score games, I hear that all the time, and usually from both sides. I try to let it go in one ear and out the other but that doesn’t always happen and it distracts me.
Over the years I’ve given it lots of thought and it almost always comes out the same. The fans in the stands are ignorant with a capital “I”! In most cases those people don’t think the way we “real” baseball people do. While we look at the subtleties of the game and understand how the different things going on relate to each other, most fans at amateur baseball games are there because they have some kind of familial or friendship attachment to one or more of the players.
Those people tend to think in terms of their own self-interest and couldn’t care less that there might be very good reasons things are the way they are, even though the questions they ask and the observations they make may well be worthwhile and accurate. But in many instances the ignorance is perpetuated because the person making the decisions either doesn’t have or doesn’t take the time to explain his decision making process.
That’s why I’m so glad that like you I’m not one of the ignorant masses, but unlike you, I can’t just move every time I hear ignorance at a baseball game. As much as it might distract me, I actually have to sit and listen to what other people have to say, ignorant or not.