>Watched the Red Sox vs Rockies last night (and the other night too). Having visited and loved Boston I have to admit to have been rooting for them. Congrats Boston on winning the series.
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>Not a bad game, if a little low scoring. Prompted me to write the following:
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>1) What is it with baseball players and beards? about 70% of the players seemd to have a beard of some sort, most being the chin fuzz with no moustache, like Mike Cole's.
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In the series a lot or player simply refuse to shave because they feel it will bring bad luck.

>2) What is it with baseball players and chewing? Most seem to chew away 90 to the dozen, some on big wads of gum ("chewy" as we call it). I doubt if many nowadays still "chaw" on baccy as in the old days but one of teh ugliest sites I've seen in my life was the repeated focusing of the camera on one of Boston's coaches, a mealy-mouthed looking fellah with a huge gob of gum rammed into his cheek, like half a hamster. I saw him cramming more and more gum in the other night.

As you appear to be aware, players used to chaw baccy. The kids then grew up seeing them and for whatever reason, thinking it was really cool. Since baccy is a major no-no these days, gum takes its place. Also, for some people, chewing seems to help them focus.

When I was a teenager working in the scoreboard at Maple Leaf stadium here in Toronto, we used to trade with the players before the game. They'd bring us boxes of bubble gum, and we'd let them sit in the scoreboard and use our binoculars to look for good looking women coming into the stands.

>3) Then there's the incessant spitting. Are they allergic to their own spit or something? They chew like mad, get the saliva going then spit it out. The camera kept zooming in on one after the other, some spitting out their gum too. Man that dug-out must be an unwholesome place, what with all the gum and gobs spat out. It's little wonder our sidewalks are encrusted with the vile stuff if these are the role-models. It's no wonder many of them never make first base - they're slowed down by the chewy stuck to teh soles of their feet

Believe me, you would not believe the dugout. Spitting is one of the first things you learn to do well when you start playing really competitive baseball. Even if you don't chew gum, you still need to be able to spit well.

>4) Pitchers. Can someone explain why many of them do this ritual of looking the other way for a pause before pitching. I can understand the back-stop's secret hand-signals to him, and his nod of acknowledgement, but I can't see what purpose this serves.

That's usually when there is a runner on base. It's called 'looking the runner back'. It's supposed to make the runner feel like the pitcher might be about to try to pick him off and make him hug the base more.

>5) Batters - One of them (who was struck out) insisted on just attempting to block EVERY PITCH, with the bat held out in both hands. I can understand this being done occasionally, as opportunity and the picth dictates, but this guy did it all that way.

I've known guys who did that in some situations. Trying to throw the pitcher off. By making him look for the bunt, the pitcher has to think past the pitch itself. The batter is hoping it will change and mess up the pitcher's focus. I've found that with decent pitchers, it does little (if anything).

>6) Wides - T'other night (Bit confused here - Boston vs another Colorado team, in black daft shirts - Denver?) I watched the pitcher throw several deliberate and obvious wides to the back-stop, the batter making no attempt to hit them, just watching. It was like a warm-up but was in the middle of teh match. After a few, the batter then proceeded to walk off to the left (of the image). I don't know if he was scoring or out. Wassup with all that?

There are two usual reasons for that.
1. If the batter is a good hitter, it is not unusual for the pitcher to deliberately walk him so that he doesn't get the chance to hit one solid. This often happens when there are runners in scoring position (2nd or 3rd base). It also happens if the hitter is a major home run hitter, and the pitcher doesn't want to take a chance on letting him hit one out.

2. If there is a runner on 2nd and nobody on 1st, the pitcher might do this in order to set up a force at 3rd base.