Bush League

Good example of 'Bush League' play!

It is the peak of summer, which means only one sport dominates the news...baseball (and softball but they are similar enough that we can consider them one entity for the sake of the opening line of this blog entry).  Being from Brownsburg, IN, I hold baseball to a higher standard than most people.  I believe in playing the game the right way; with sportsmanship and class.  Now I remember playing Frosh and JV ball in high school and I had a coach who coined the term "Bush League" for me.  Now I know he wasn't the first person to use it, but it was the first time I was introduced to it.  Bush League refers to the minor leagues of the old days where non-conventional and unprofessional play dominated games.  Now, my coach would refer to a play or strategy as "Bush League" when the other team did things like;

-Steal bases when up by 10 runs
-Try gimmicky plays to pick a runner off second or third base (hidden ball trick)
-Run the score up
-Walk on  and off the field
-Bunt every guy because they couldn't hit our pitcher
-Bunt every guy because our pitcher was slow
-And my personal favorite...excessively taunting our pitcher as a runner on base

There are many other examples but you get the picture.  Now that coach (Coach Stayte) was a great coach for many reasons but the one thing I took away the most from him was that you should always play the game the right way.  Run on and off the field, respect the other players, always give 110%, etc.  A few years later when I coached little league baseball, my main philosophy was have fun and play the game the right way.  In three years as a coach I hovered around a .500 record and never won any championships.  But I believe we had more fun and learned more about the game of baseball than any other team.

Of course by now you are wondering, "Matt, why the hell are you talking about this?"  This week is the final week of the my summer softball league.  My team played in the Winner's Bracket final against the powerhouse of the league.  We lost and have to beat another team Thursday before we get another crack at the powerhouse.  But having played the powerhouse twice, I can honestly say they use some pretty Bush League tactics.

First of all, their pitcher wears a batting glove on his throwing hand.  Now, I know that is a little judgmental but my coaches would never allow that to happen and I would need a pretty serious reason to allow it on my team (he's been wearing it all summer and claims he was recruited to play baseball at Purdue; I call shananigans).  He also is the slooooowest pitcher I have ever seen and he talks to the batter everytime.  I took one practice swing while approaching the plate and he said, "Ready when you are batter!"  Then, once in the batter's box, I waited. And waited. And waited for him to pitch.  I was so mad I tried to hit it right back at him only to line out to the center fielder.

Second of all, they have a former minor league baseball player on their team.  Now I am not sure how he is related to Res Life but anyone who has their own baseball card should not be playing in this league (or at the very least should prevent Bush League play).

Next, the team takes advantage of some DH rule which I don't understand.  This allows them to bat their best players two or three times before their worst players bat at all.  I tried to say something about it, but because this is for fun and the scorekeeping is sloppy at best, I had no ground to stand on.

Lastly, and probably the most annoying thing of all is that their team is huge but they only play the bare minimum of players.  They have at least 18-20 people is shirts and probably 15 or so that bat...but only 10-11 play the field.  And at any given time they have 2-3 people in the coaches boxes by 1st and 3rd base, regardless of who's up to bat.  Between that and all the talking they do to each other and the other team, by the end of the game you just want them to 10-run you so we can all go home.

I understand that this is a Summer Softball league.  But no where in this alledged rule book is there a rule that says you cannot play the game with some dignity and class.  Going into to tomorrow's final games they are the heavy favorite, but they have already lost my respect.