June 22, 2009

Put me in coach, I wanna play...Right field?

Christine Lavin and Peter Paul & Mary sang that when they played softball, right field was their position.

Thinking on it, when I was a little kid, we always put the lousiest player out there too. It wasn't until we got into organized ball that we learned that we needed the kid with the good arm there, and that left field wasn't quite as critical a defensive position.

I think our faulty reasoning was brought on by the observation that there were very few left-handed hitters in our sandlot games and that correspondingly few balls would be hit out to right, so kids with good skills weren't needed there.

Prompted by this comment at Making Light

Posted by Linkmeister at June 22, 2009 11:58 AM | TrackBack
Comments

In sandlot games where we didn't have enough players, we often would "close" right field, and any ball hit out there was foul. For the occasional lefty hitter we had, we'd simply shift,and close left for that batter.

In organized ball, the right fielder should probably have the strongest arm on the team as the throw from right to third is much longer than the throw from left to third.

Posted by: SeattleDan at June 23, 2009 09:38 AM

I was a strong left-handed hitter even as a little kid (big for my age, and with strong forearms from practicing piano for 1-2 hours a day). Now, for the first time, I realize why I used to piss everybody else off so much when I went to the plate.

Posted by: LMB MacAlister at June 23, 2009 03:10 PM

Grins. Epiphanies provided while you wait.

Posted by: Linkmeister at June 23, 2009 03:19 PM