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.