Tag: baseball

The Brutal reality of going pro in sports

A few years ago, I was at a Chiefs game. A pop foul came my way and an age peer (60s) was standing just behind me, to my right. He reached out his hand and snatched the ball out of the air.

I looked at him wide-eyed and said “you must have played.” He got a “happy/sad” look on his face and admitted that, at one time in his life, he was a A league minor league player; he now had an office job related to baseball.

And yes, to play A level minor league baseball, you have to be better than the vast majority of college players, who in turn are better than the vast majority of high school players, who I think are pretty good.

But only about 10 percent of those that I watch at Chiefs games will become a Major League player. Just being excellent won’t get you there.

And that reminds me of these two threads posts:

Here is a 28:00 10000 meter, 1:48 800 meter runner who works at McDonalds to finance his training. Yes, he could run for some college teams and get financial assistance for his education. But his times need to be something like 27:20 or 1:43 to even sniff earning a living through his running.

Then I read this inspiring story of a runner who progressed from a 5:26 mile in 9’th grade to a 4:07 in college (as a senior) to a 3:59.37 three years after college. Only a tiny percentage of all middle distance runners have gone sub 4 for a mile. He IS elite but…well, he needs to be at least 10 seconds faster (a quantum leap at that level) to even sniff a pro contract. He won’t be earning his living as a runner, despite being elite.

And that is what it is like. An average engineer can make a nice living, as can, say, an average accountant. But even an elite athlete can peak out before the “earn your living at it” level.

This blog has become boring but..

I still like recording a bit of what is going on, mainly so I can see where I was.

First baseball: I saw the Chiefs on Wednesday and Thursday. The Wednesday game: the highly touted starter didn’t last past the first inning, giving up 3 runs. But the Timberrattlers got only 1 more and the Chiefs opened it up with 3 in the 3’rd and 3 in the 6’th to win 6-4. They got 11 hits in all; very fun game. There was a good crowd too as it was “Faith and Family” night. No, it wasn’t the crowds of 10 years ago (when that night sold out) but 3501 took up half of the stadium seats. That was perhaps the largest non July 3’rd-July 4’th Wednesday crowd of recent memory.

Thursday: can we talk about Wednesday again? The Rattlers bombed the Chiefs for 5 runs in the second and ended up crushing the Chiefs 9-0 behind 10 hits. Though the on the field action may have been boring, the umpire stuff was wild. The home plate umpire ejected the Rattler’s manager for arguing a batter’s pitch clock violation strike, ejected the Chief’s bench coach for arguing the same thing..and, well, the ball 9 was a CALLED third strike which even made the Chiefs crowd gasp.

You have to have a sense of humor. In the 9’th, the Chiefs sent a catcher up to finish the inning: he gave up 1 hit and no runs. Fans joked that he was our best reliever.

In the bottom of the 9’th, the Chiefs managed to load the bases and those still left (crowd was sparse to begin with and most had left) were chanting for the Chiefs to score. Didn’t happen.

The highlight was Richardson getting brushed back (for the second time) with some chin music…stepping up and ripping a double anyway.

That’s probably the most fun 9-0 loss that I’ve ever endured.

Other personal stuff: reading more Bond novels (finished 3 Morse ones). The main characters are complete horn-dogs! And if “colonialism” is a deal breaker for you, ..well…don’t read these books.

Workouts:
Thursday: very irritated and it was hot and gross. 1:37:55 for my usual 10k (15:48)
Friday: slow 2 mile walk and weights.
Pull ups went very well: 10, 10, 10 (ok 8) 2 penalty reps, 6, 6, 5, 5 (mixed grip for the final 2 sets, chin grip for the sets of 6)
bench: 18 x 134 (wanted 20), 3 sets of 7 x 150
high incline: 10 x 94, 5 x 110, 5 x 100

Saturday: slept in due to getting in late from A Few Good Men (the play)
low handle: 10 x 134, 10 x 184, 10 x 225
4 inch: 10 x 244
Then a slow 2 mile walk.

Note: I’ve signed up for the Quad Cities Half marathon and will do it, provided the Illinois vs USC game is NOT a Saturday night game. Given the current night TV Big Ten schedule, I don’t expect it to be.

Some very frustrating Chiefs games

First: I did an easy 4 mile walk at 17:30 mpm around the neighborhood.

Now about the Chiefs:
Friday: this was a double header. The Chiefs lost a tightly contested contest 4-3. Barbara was with me for that one. Second one: Barbara went home, but Linda, Vickie and Harry were there. The game got a late start due to *potential* thunderstorms which didn’t materialize, and ended after the top of the 6’th due to a thunderstorm which DID materialize in a big way. Final was 6-5.

Saturday: this one wasn’t really close. The Chiefs bullpen did deliver 5 consecutive shut out innings but they were already down 5-0 and it ended 5-2. Tracy and Barbara were there. This game saw one ejection (batter arguing a bad strike call)

Sunday: here is the kicker. Chiefs start out 8-0 after 3. Starting pitcher tires after 4 innings and gives up 3 runs. In the 7’th the bull pen gives up 2 more, then…argh..3 more in the 8’th. Horror show.

So, now it is 10-8 in the top of the bottom of the 10’th. 2 out, runners on first and third. Clutch hitter at the plate (grand slam, game winning double, multiple hits with runners on base). So what do you do? You…steal and get thrown out. OMG.

This last loss was the most frustrating one in a long time.

To recap the week: 6 losses in a row. Leads of 5-0, 3-0 and 8-0 blown.
ARGH!!!

Note: this was a chippy series. In one game, the Kernels pitching coach was tossed. In another game, a Kernel player was tossed. In today’s game, a Chiefs player was tossed (arguing about a shift?) and in the 10’th, a Kernels player and a Chiefs player started to square off due to a contested play at the plate.

Workout catch up part N+1

Though the semester is over, baseball plus the basement has kept me busy. I am going to try to rip out more carpet tomorrow; I have some nice matting to lay down in its place. And using those heavy duty scissors has given me sore forearms!

I’ve got some baseball to talk about as well.

Workouts:
Wednesday: weights only between the Bradley MVC game (11-7 loss) and the Chiefs 3-2 win over the Dayton Dragons (very well played game)

The weights: pull ups: 50 plus, 7 sets of 7 plus a set of 5 (mixed the grip)
bench: 10 x 134, 3 sets of 6 x 155
high incline: 6 x 105, 6 x 105, 5 x 110
4 inch trap bar: 10 x 134, 10 x 184, 10 x 225

Thursday: 10k walk (6.2 mile course: 5 hill course plus 1.25) in 1:34:27, 3 minutes faster than two days earlier. I was at 1:02:57 at mile 4 and walked my fastest 2 after that (14:2x average). Teenager yelled at me and I yelled back.

Friday (today) slow 2 miler after weights:
pull ups 7 sets of 7 then 2 sets of 3 to get 55 reps (mixed the grip)
bench: 10 x 134, 7 x 155, 5 x 160, 4 x 160
incline: 3 sets of 5 x 134
high incline: 3 sets of 6 x 105

Baseball:

Bradley lost to Belmont 11-7 in a game that saw the Braves take 1-0 and 4-1 leads. Belmont then lead 8-4 before back to back Brave home runs cut it to 8-7, but it never got closer.

The game was scheduled to be played the day before.

Night: the Chiefs beat the Dayton Dragons 3-2 behind excellent pitching. Rincon started by retiring the first 6 batters he faced, but gave up 3 big hits (including a HR) in the 3’rd, but then regained form. The bullpen was solid, throwing 4.3 shutout innings.

Thursday: not quite as cold but the bats WERE cold. The Chiefs lost 1-0 despite mostly good pitching. After 5 solid innings from the starter (allowed 1 hit) and 2 shut out innings from relief pitcher 1 (and a spectacular double play off a line drive caught by the first baseman), then came the 8’th inning:
strikeout, walk, walk, walk, walk, strikeout, strikeout. That was the lone run of the inning and the game.

With the exception of the 4 walk sequence, the pitchers on both teams owned the game.

The Chiefs got my hopes up with a lead off single in the bottom of the 9’th, but advanced no further.

Chiefs teeth chattering opener

First, about my workouts:
Saturday: 5K race (as a walker). Somewhat hampered my a sore left hamstring so I had to be cautious.
2 mile warm up
5K: 13:03 first mile, low 12’s for the next two (stop to get a rock out of my shoe in mile 3) for 38:40 by my watch (12:28 mpm). I barely held off some slow walk jogger with a dog; I could hear the dog panting.

Below: Crystal (24:40-ish..at 61 years of age) and me. She has kept a good deal of her speed; she started running in 2004.

Walked another mile to cool down, then 3 stadium laps between double header games.
When we finished, we were treated to this:

Then 2 more (16 mpm) this morning after lifting:
5 sets of 6 pull ups, 7 pull ups, 5 pull ups, 6 more, 2 reps wide, two sets of 3 mixed for 56 reps. These felt …ok
weights: bench: 10 x 134, 5 x 160, 5 x 160, 5 x 160
trap bar (4 inch) 10 x 134, 10 x 184, 10 x 234
high incline: 10 x 94, 10 x 94, 5 x 105
curls: 3 sets of 10. 75 minutes for the session after pull ups.

Chiefs Baseball

Friday’s opener was rained out. Saturday: double header starting at 4:30. First game was crisp; Chiefs gave up a home run on the first at bat and went on to lose 6-2, getting one run in the bottom of the 7’th (7 inning game). It finished in 2 hours.

Then came the next game. The Chiefs walked 12 batters in what turned out to be a 8 inning game! Still, it was 6-0 going into the top of the 4’th..then the Chiefs rallied for 6 runs to tie the game. It went to the bottom of the 7’th. 2 outs, runner on second, shallow base hit to right, runner tries to score (perhaps hesitated just a tiny bit), thrown out at the plate. Bandits get 2 runs in the top of the 8’th. Chiefs then load the bases with no outs on the bottom..to end up with 2 strike outs and a ground out.

If I thought that was long, Sunday’s 2 pm game was 4 hours plus long! It was a longish 2-2 going into the bottom of the 9’th: Chiefs get a runner to 3’rd but can’t bring him in.
So in the 10’th: Quad Cities score 2. Chiefs score one. One out, “double play ground ball” is hit, but they throw away the ball at first and the Chiefs tie it.
11’th: QC gets a run. Now the Chiefs are up, 2 out, runner at 3’rd: pop up in the infield. QC drops it and the Chiefs score! It is now 5-5 going into the 12’th.
4 runs for QC, Chiefs retaliate with a 2 run home run, but cannot score again; they lose 9-7.


Extra catch up/baseball

Here I’ll talk about the Chiefs Sunday game, then the Chiefs games on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Sunday’s afternoon 4-2 loss was a bad end to a brutal series to the Whitecaps. The Chiefs had good enough pitching and fielding to win most of the series games, but only scored a grand total of 10 runs for the 6 games. The lone win was a 1-0 win on Tuesday.

Tuesday: The Chiefs fell behind 4-0 after 1 and 6-2 in the top of the 6’th but rallied for 4 runs in the bottom of the 6’th. That is how it ended after 9 innings, but in the 10’th, the Kernels (one of the league’s finest teams this year) got 2 to win 8-6. It was a loss, but at least the Chiefs got some hits.

Wednesday: attendance was tiny..one of the emptiest I’ve seen it for a great weather game. Barbara went with me again. This one was close, low scoring affair with each team getting one run in the 1’st and 5’th. But in the bottom of the 9’th, the Chiefs got a runner to second and a chopping ground ball single drove in the winning run.

Thursday: This one was bizarre. The Kernels starter pitched 6 perfect innings and their reliever pitched 2 more. Meanwhile, it was batting practice for them. It was a humiliating 8-0 going into the bottom of the 9’th. But then the Kernel’s pitching fell apart. Walk, then a hit..and before you know it, the Chiefs loaded the bases. It turns out that the Chiefs got 5 runs and had a runner on base when the second Kernel reliever got a strike out.

I went from “maybe a perfect game for them” to “maybe an epic comeback for the Chiefs” to seeing a mundane 8-5 loss.

I’ll talk about the WNBA game in the next post.