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About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (April 18, 2012)
sportsed@clackamas. edu Clackamas Print / Wednesday, April 18, 2012 Baseball may be out as Americas national pastime By John William Howard Sports Editor I wont pretend to be a huge fen of baseball. For years as a child I played soccer, and throughout m y high school years came to love basketball. Football took a lithe longer to work its way into m y heart, but baseball, even though I played as an 8-year-old, never really grabbed hold of my attention. This presents a problem for me as a sports enthusiast, as m any people would point o u t After all, baseball is the great American pastime, isn’t it? Its, one of the oldest sports that is still widely popular today, as baseball s his tory goes fer back into the early 1.800s, when informal teams played with localized rules. Baseball has evolved over time, but if you look at a black and white baseball photo taken yesterday, its as timeless as one taken 100 years ago. N ot much has changed, other than a few minor rule adjustments and the explosion o f salaries. Baseball is still tne deliberately slow game it always has been. Now, proponents o f baseball would tell you that they like the pace, that it gives them time to reflect on the action rather than simply move on to the next wild play. There’s time to enjoy a hot dog and a beer, and for televi sion, there is plenty .of time for commercials. In addition to that, baseball is a game that even some o f the youngest and uncoordinated kids (see me at age 8) are able to enjoy. As a youngster, it isn’t too strenuous conditioning wise, and. the roles and rules.ate d early defined and easy to execute. T hat said, I can’t help but wonder if baseball is on the decline T he reason is because baseball doesn’t follow the trend. During the last 10 years, the world has changed to become fester and fester. I f a computer doesn’t boot and access the Internet in under a minute, you claim it’s too slow. Flip phones are a thing o f the past, overtaken by the Blackberry, iPhone and Android. That trend spills into sports, too. The other major American sports, football and basketball, are much fester in pace. T he NBA averages nearly 100 points per game, and football, while they don’t score as quickly, each touchdown is worth seven points. Both the NBA and the N FL advertise mostly based on current performance. They’ll tell you to watch right now because it’s exciting and it moves fest and there’s a lot to see. Baseball, on the odier hand, is steeped with tradi-' tion. Unlike in many o f the other sports, Major League Baseball’s ballparks are used for decades before they are replaced. Uniforms also often remain unchanged, like the Yankees, who have been wearing pinstripes for 100 years this season. That’s exactly what baseball tries to sell. Yes,.the his- tory is captivating and the myriad of stats, records and averages is fascinating, but the pace might be too slow for America as we continue to speed up. Other countries are. Beginning to surpass the US in baseball prowess, namely Japan; Tne last two and only times that the World Baseball Classic has been held, Japan came away with a victory, while the United States placed fourth just once. Before the baseball players and fens write me off, I will say that I’ve been enjoying baseball much more than I used to, as I begin to study and learn the game. Even as somebody whohadnfever gotten into The sport, I &n still deeply appreciate the smell of the grass, the crack of the bat and the look o f the field. I just know that if I, or many o f the students on cam pus, had to choose between baseball and basketball, wed be sitting in Randall Hall, riot out on the empty bleach ers by the baseball field. T hat might have to do with the amount o f rain in this state, or that we donthave a major or minor league baseball team very dose to our city, but I honestly think that over the past 10 years, baseball has fallen from the top spot in sports lovers’ hearts. Is it too late for Major League Baseball? No. They still have a huge following, and recent lockout issues with die NBA a n a NFL gave baseball a huge boost, but l eant even begin to offer a solution going forward. They don’t pay me for that. and three walks in three innings pitched. D avid Rassmus'setl relieved Baldoccbi in the fourth inning. Baseball flattened by Lane Clackamas baseball gives up thirteen runs in ninth inning fo r their worst loss o f the season four innings, in w hich the Cougars attem pted to m ourft a comeback. “I pitch to contact rather than try to strike anyone out. I trust m y team m ates behind me to make plays and I try to m ake the plays for them as simple as possible,” stated. By Steven Weldon Rassmussen via Facebook postgame. The Clackamas Print “M y approach in that game was to Looking to im p ro v e upon a dis try and n o t leave anything up and get them to roll over for fly balls and appointing 1-3 start in NW A A C C southern region play, the Clackamas ground balls; W ith o u t the team that C ougars baseball team aim ed at I have backing m e up in the field I surprising the region-best 4-0 Lane w ould n o t be as successful.” Ig C om m u n ity College T itans in a dou Clackamas clim bed to w ithin four bleheader at Clackamas C om m unity runs at 9-5 at the end o f the eighth i n ning afte r a Lane C ollege on Tuesday, A p ril- lO. vlSforturiateTy,’ tHe T itans had other 8 allowed aG bugarruftiS ubsequently, sophom ore Ty A rnold h it a weak fly ideas as they dropped seven runs on the board and stifled the Cougars’ ball to bring in another run. Arnold offense to no runs in the first four had three hits, one run and an RBI to pace the Cougars. innings o f game one. Regrettably, game one got o u t o f Clackamas left-handed sophom ore pitcher D an te Baldocchi allowed hand in the top o f the n inth inning. five earned runs on-seven hits -and T he Titans scored an astounding ! 3 runs in the inning off o f Cougars’ three walks in th ree innings pitched, infielder-acting-pitcher sophom ore and was replaced by right-handed Q u in Walker. sophom ore D avid Rassmussen in the “So you saw we com peted right fourth inning. up till the last inning, offensively our “W e ve, been talking aboutTLane] hitters are hitting real well, our pitch all week,” said head coach Robin Robinson.“W eve been preparing for ers are com peting b ut Baldocchi got them , and we just pitched poor o ff to a bad start, you know if w ere in the gam e-w ith all o f our pitch l y [innings] one through four and ers we get him o u t by the second we got to the point where we had to go to our infield just to use inning. B ut going in to today where up o u r other pitchers. W ere play ,we got 'five pitchers to play two ing Tuesday, T hursday, Saturday, games because we got a T hursday Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday so we doubleheader [and] a Saturday dou bleheader w e h a d L.to, leave him o u t a get deep into the pitching staff.” little longer t h a r r ^ w anted,” added Rassmussen calm ed things dow n for the Cougars, only S lo w in g R obinson after game one. Unfortunately,, game tw o would : -tw o: earned runs on séven hies n o t provide solace as Lane right- and on e w alk through handed sophom ore Z ach Kayser p itched six o f the .. . . . eight innings allowing two h its and striking o ut five Cougars en route to a- 6-0 victory to drop th e Cougars to 1-5 in southern region play. C oach Robinson’s caution towards his pitching staff because o f th e d ou ble header on Thursday, April 11 was for naught : as their game against the C hem eketa C o m m u n ity College Storm was postponed for a rainout for the second tim e this season. T h e doubleheader was rescheduled for Thursday, April 19 at hom e? T h e Cougars co n tin u ed th eir w eek by playjng the JMt. H o o d C om m unity College'Saints on April 14, on a beautiful day. Playing to a score less tie .going into the bottom o f the sixth inning, the Saints, scored the first run o f the day w ith a bases-load- ed sacrifice fly. T h e Cougars could n ot m atch w ith anotherrun the rest o f the game and lost 3-0, dashing an otherwise quality start by sopho m ore right-hander Josh Burbery. In game two, the Saints pounced on the Cougars early an d finished th e day w ith back-to-back victories, w inning 5-2. 1 jg I ■ S ophom ore left-h an d ed p itch er C ody C h in g has com e o u t this season, starting four games w ith a record o f 1-1, w ith a 1.57 earned ru n average. H is 21 strikeouts leads the team , and he has the only com plete gam e o f all pitchers o n the team. Clackamas’ next gam e at hom e is on April T 9 against th e C hem eketa Storm , a m ake-up doubleheader th at will be played tw o weeks after its original scheduled date. •• '•........k ...ifi! - ■ •I :• s MB . ....... .............. ..........................- ....................... ....... ......................................................... MHMMI L a n d sB lake M ontague (13) makes a break fo r fir s t base after smashing a p itc h towards deft'field. M ontague had two hits, two runs a n d two RBIs to contribute to Lane’s 2 2 - 6 dominant'victory.
