Injuries

Just maybe the greatest relief pitcher in the history of Major League Baseball Mariano Rivera was injured this week while the Yankees were taking batting practice just like every team every where does before any game.  I have heard so many comments about how silly that is that he would be shagging fly balls in the outfield during batting practice.

Major League teams play practically everyday.  The only time they get to practice is before a game starts.  Most of the time that happens before the gates open and in some parks the home team has finished batting practice before the paying public is allowed into a stadium.

The home team gets forty minutes that starts by who ever is the starting line up with the lead off batter first  gets their cuts. He gets about ten swings before the second batter gets his cuts. Then those on the bench take a few swings.  While there is someone in the cage  coaches are hitting ground balls to the infielders and they either throw the ball over to first or back to a designated area.

  There is always a screen setup for whoever is pitching batting practice in most cases it is a coach.  The screen is there to protect him on line drives hit directly back at him because just as fast as he can let one pitch goes he is winding up to throw another.  There are other screens set up for first  base, second and any where a player may be catching a ball thrown from  a different direction from where the hitters are.  Once the home teams forty minutes is up the visitors get their forty minutes

I once went to see the Braves play way back  in the 80's in Atlanta and as we walking on to the stadium grounds several pitchers were actually running around the stadium.  I remember two of them were Rick Camp and Tommy Green so that dates how far back that was.  Pitchers run wind sprints in the outfield while batting practice goes on while other pitchers who may have finished their running are shagging fly balls like Rivera was doing.

It doesn't  matter how valuable you are to the team everyone has to get in the necessary work before a game in order to be in shape to play six months a baseball everyday.  Baseball is not like football where you play a game and practice five times before you play again.  I believe  the players play 20 out of 21 days so they only get one day off every three weeks. 

In the movie Bull Durham Crash  created a rain out by cutting on the sprinkler system and letting it run all night.  Don't you know players hate rain delays that make the games go five hours or more.  You also got to know they love it when a game gets rained out before they leave for the ball park.  Days off are precious.