>>>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.
>>>
>>>Not a bad game, if a little low scoring. Prompted me to write the following:
>>>
>>>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.
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>But they HAVE shaved - everything but a wee tuft on the chin sometimes.

Yes, but what's left is their good luck charm. There have been players who refused to get haircuts etc. while they were in playoffs. Some of them have ended up looking darned scruffy.

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>>>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.
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>>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.
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>Ah, of course, to watch for the runners stealing bases during the pitch!

Actually more to try to convince the runners that they'd better stay close to the base before the pitch, because the ball may come their way.

< snip >

>>>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.
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>"Walk him"? You mean let him walk to 1st base - give away a run - so he doesn't get a homer?

They aren't giving away a run. They are only giving away a potential run. They feel they have a better chance with the next batter than with this one. Secondly, they now can throw out the runner at 2nd base on a ground ball rather than having to go cross diamond to 1st base, or better still, they might get a double-play - throw out both runners on a ground ball for 2 outs at the same time by 'forcing' the runner at 2nd (means they only have to touch the base, and don't have to tag the runner since he cannot go back to 1st base - ie 'the force').

>>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.
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>"Set up a force"?

A force means that the runner cannot retreat. An out at 1st base is always a force meaning that the player only needs to touch the base while holding the ball because the hitter cannot retreat to home plate. If, for instance, a runner is on 2nd base, and nobody is on 1st, and there is a ground ball, the runner has 2 options. He can progress to third base, or if it looks like he won't make it, he can try to get back to 2nd base (or he can simply not leave 2nd base). Therefore there is no 'force'. If he is on 2nd and there is a runner on 1st. The ground ball forces them all to try to go forward, and as long as they don't tag the runner who was on 1st base first, the runner at 2nd can only go to third (ie - he is forced to go there) and the guy with the ball only needs to touch the base, not the runner.

>Oh, and one more thing: The commentators refer to the situation as, say, "1 and 2", the TV dirsplay showing "1-2". Now I understand the 2nd no. to be the no. of strikes but what's the 1st? No. of good balls?
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>How does this increment?
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>How high can it go? (No. of good "balls" that the batter hasn't had a swipe at? Therefore he's allowed 3?)
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>The batter is allowed only 3 swipes at the ball. Is there a limit to the no. of duff pitches that can be made?

Three strikes is out. Four balls is a walk. The count of 1 and 2 means 1 ball and 2 strikes so far on the batter. 3 and 2 is the big pitch. The next pitch (as long as the ball isn't hit foul) means a walk, or a strikeout, or a hit.

As long as the batter keeps hitting foul balls on a third strike, he can stand there all day.

>
>Thanks for the info, Al.