Ted Frank - Baseball: The Unfair Sport

Baseball
The Unfair Sport

Ted Frank

Cover design by Peg Lestina

Baseball The Unfair Sport

2012 Ted Frank

ISBN-10: 1-893937-63-1

ISBN-13: 978-1-893937-63-5

1st Printing 2012
2nd Printing 2013

All Rights Reserved Under
International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner
whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief
quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

Printed in the United States by
Independent Publishing Corporation
Chesterfield, Missouri 63005

Baseball The Unfair Sport

By Ted Frank

eBook Edition

Produced by
1111 Plaza Drive, Suite 300
Schaumburg, IL 60173
Enquiries:
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ISBN 13: 978-1-61813-079-2
ISBN 10: 161813079X

This book is dedicated
to my dear and departed wife, Rose,
who would have enjoyed it, not for the content,
but rather for the fact
that I could complete such an endeavor.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

The Culprit, Himself,
the One-Sided Wonder

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Writing a book is not a single-handed task. Many others helped me in all facets of this undertaking. Without such help, I probably would have an unfinished book.

A special thanks goes to my daughter, Sharon, and my son-in-law, Craig Ackermann, who helped with obtaining information. They also double-checked information that I had.

ACTA Sports Publications was kind enough to grant their permission for the use of Bill James Handbooks as a main reference source for the majority of batting averages and statistics in this book. These handbooks were an invaluable source of information.

Also Baseball-Reference.com, a division of Sports Reference LLC, granted permission for the use of specific stats that are interesting, but hard to find. These two source references provided sufficient information to produce an informative book, and they were kind enough to grant permission with no hassle. A very special thanks to both of them.

Being an inexperienced author, I was somewhat naive and possessed a lack of understanding as to the methods of writing and publishing. I must express my sincere gratitude for the help that I received from George Lestina and the entire staff at Independent Publishing Corporation.

And a very big thank you goes to Alice Wells, my girl Friday, who typed, edited, retyped and corrected this material until we had something legible for the readers. How she tolerated my changes, I really dont know! She, at least, learned quite a bit about baseball.

Finding errors in my writing is not difficult because there are many; however, finding all of them is almost an impossible task. I must thank my proofreaders and good friends, Dr. Jack Ackermann and Doug Dahm, and again, my daughter, Sharon Ackermann, for exposing those little mistakes that I could read 10 times without seeing.

And lastly, thanks to my friends who had to put up with countless questions about baseball. I have always enjoyed running things by people who can reason; therefore, I bother some of them too often. Doug Dahm, Bill Santanello, Rhonda Dori and my brother, Fred, among others, have been kind enough to listen to me.

Thanks again to all who have supported me in this writing and a sincere thank you to all who take time to read these pages.

INTRODUCTION

Batting averages, as well as other statistics, have always been a fascinating part of baseball for me. As a youth I marveled at the ability of the great hitters who could hit major league pitching much better than other players.

Such fascination is still with me today. Great hitters come and go, but there are always some of them in the major leagues. I still wonder why they can excel while so many others fail.

This curiosity has led me to investigate the reasons for such disparities among batters. Throughout my life I have slowly drawn conclusions as to why one hitter has greater success than another.

My first deduction was the fact that two great hitters on a team get better pitches to hit than one great hitter. Three high-average hitters on a team get even better pitches to hit. Opposing pitchers cant afford to walk a batter with great hitters following him.

This fact helped me understand the numbers that Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig put together year after year. They not only complemented one another, but they were surrounded by other pretty good hitters.

By watching and observing the game, slowly the realization came that many other factors contribute to successful hitting. Some are obvious, and others are seldom noticed or missed completely.

Finally, it became apparent that some ballplayers had all the hitting advantages, and others had none. Suddenly, the game appeared so unfair that I had to put my thoughts on paper.

Even as I wrote, I became aware of more situations that resulted in unfair play; and by talking to others, I learned that fans were almost completely unaware of the inequities in the game.

In this book reasons are listed for this lack of fair play, and they have long been in full view to all of us. Most of us should want our national pastime to be fair to all who play the game. Baseball, as well as all sports, can be improved. After all, that is why rules change from time to time.

Readers may think that I am hypercritical by citing so many aspects of baseball that appear unfair or unsafe. But let me say that I truly enjoy the game in its present format. However, it could be made better and fairer for all the players.

Please dont think of me as an antagonist to the game, but rather as someone who wants to make a great sport even better. Improvements can always be made. And please know that my main incentive for this writing is not to suggest rule changes, rather it is to lay bare the inequities in the game as it is played today.

It is the reluctance to change, when change is necessary, that kills the endeavor. Baseball is no differentit must make changes to continue to thrive.

However, it is not my intention to denigrate the game; rather, my intent centers on exposing the hidden side of baseball that all fans should come to know. Some readers may agree with me and others may not.

Regardless, I hope you find these pages enlightening, informative and interesting. This book attempts to throw an extremely different slant on the game as we know it, and it uncovers facets of this multi-million dollar pastime that are not discussed, but should be.

PREFACE

The sport of baseball is, and always has been, an ever-changing game. It has been played for 150 years, yet mores, trends and rule changes are still taking place. Wouldnt you think that in 150 years we could get it perfected?

Many changes have taken place, but few changes have been effected because of fairness or safety. The result is that many unfair and unsafe situations remain in the game. This is not necessarily the fault of those who make the rules. There are many reasons for the games inequities.

The largest and most glaring unfair situation is that of the many advantages for the left-handed batter. This book explains in some detail these advantages for the left-handed batter and offers some suggested solutions. But more importantly, such inequities cause young players to adopt a style of play that gives them advantages over others.

Because of the many advantages for the left-handed batters, baseball is virtually encouraging young right-handed players to become left-handed batters. Also, the unwritten restriction that players who throw left-handed must play either the outfield or first base is somewhat unfair to natural left-handed players. The sport demands that left-handers must learn to throw right-handed if they wish to play the infield or become catchers.