The shifts, paired with the constant high velocity pitching, have taken away from the game in my own opinion. Putting the ball in play has become increasingly more difficult, much less being able to put the ball where you want it to go. Having coached for over 30 years, my last stop as the varsity pitching coach at Brownsburg High School in the Indianapolis area, I’ve seen what velocity has done to even the HS game. We’d face each team in our conference for a 3 game series...usually 2 of those games, we’d see velocity from 92-95. I saw our hitting coach ask a better player, “Why didn’t you go oppo,” after the kid weakly grounded out to short. Kid said, “Coach, I was just tryin’ to make contact.”
Putting the ball in play has become more and more difficult. I’ve heard MLB players say the same thing against the upper 90’s pitching. It all sounds easy...guess what...it’s not. One of the things that really has saddened me with the shifting is you just don’t see the great and athletic infield plays that you once saw regularly. The ball in the hole at short. Plays on balls up the middle....the shift has taken that athletic beauty away and replaced it with routine plays by players stationed in “small circles” as regulated by the numbers. Now, I don’t say that isn’t smart baseball...I’m saying it’s “ugly uninteresting baseball” that I don’t find appealing to watch. Just my opinion...
