The Rules of the Baseball Press Box

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/15/insider/foul-ball-baseball-press-box-rules.html

by rmason • 8 years ago

25 6 8 years ago

remarkEon• 8 years ago

What a fun read. If my career had taken a different direction I imagine myself working in Baseball in some capacity. There’s a decent community of folks who do amateur sabermetrics stuff for fun. I imagine a good amount of those folks will make Baseball Journalism a full time thing when they retire.

joshmn• 8 years ago

Good read.

Like the author, I was also the kid at ball games who always wanted a ball. I frequent my hometown team's games as a season-ticket holder. I don't always get a foul ball, but when I do, I give it to a kid.

When I don't get a ball naturally, I go to the vendor that sells authentic merchandise (see: genuine) and buy a used game ball. It runs me about $30. It comes with a sticker on it to verify its authenticity. I peel sticker off and rub away the residue. I'll then find a kid who's been working for a foul ball all game and toss them the ball.

They'll celebrate as if they won the lottery. Their parent will usually come find me and say how I didn't have to do that, that their kid is so happy; I joke to them "in 15 years, tell them I bought the ball to give it to them because I knew how badly they wanted the ball."

gadders• 8 years ago

Cricket players catch balls with their bare hands all the time, and they don't seem particularly softer than baseballs. Is there something that makes baseballs more painful? Do they get hit faster?

ajb2572• 8 years ago

Much faster. A cricket bat is much heavier and less aerodynamic than a baseball bat, meaning they can't swing them as fast. Also the batsman in cricket has to try to do it wearing lots of pads!

ubernostrum• 8 years ago

This might be a useful table for you:

https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/statcast_leaderboard

The "Exit Velocity" section lists recorded speeds of batted balls broken down by batter, showing their maximum and average speeds. Notice there are a lot of players for whom the average ball they hit comes off the bat at 90+ mph. The "Hard Hit" column lists how many times each player has hit a ball that came off the bat at 95+ mph.

Keep in mind also that balls are also thrown quite hard in baseball, and an important part of a fielder's job is catching balls thrown by teammates.

ajb2572• 8 years ago

Final rule: write a whole article bragging about it! :P

The Rules of the Baseball Press Box

Related Stories