Readers answer baseball oddities

Time was when I did a lot of that sort of thing. Rusty Saber’s July 11–17 column in SBJ, I mentioned some things I don’t understand. Included among them were questions about why baseball head coaches are called managers and why baseball managers and coaches wear the same uniforms as the players.

The homework assignment was for readers to take a shot at these weighty mysteries. The assignments were returned in remarkably short order.

I wrote that I didn’t understand the media ballyhoo surrounding hotel heiress Paris (rhyme intended) Hilton, who has as yet exhibited no observable talent.

A similar question was raised about the seemingly national obsession with Michael Jackson. In my opinion, he is far less talented than Stevie Wonder, who, like Jackson, moved from child performer to adult star, and receives far less media attention.

Then it came to me like a thunderbolt: Since when did talent necessarily have anything to do with anything today?

The column also noted the irony that Paris Hilton is engaged to a Greek shipping heir named Paris Latis. Another thunderbolt struck me: Two rich and famous jet setters both named Paris is payback to the French for being, well, for being so French!

On to the homework assignments.

Reader James Gilland turned in answers to both the managerial and players uniform questions. First, he gives a logical reason for the head coach being a manager. He believes that in the early days of baseball, a single person “managed” play on the field and the off-field business of scheduling, office work and promotions. If this version is correct, it would mesh with the truism that baseball honors its traditions more than any other sport. If the head coach was a manager in 1905, he would be a manager in 2005. I suppose it would follow that when other staff members were added, they would be called coaches, not assistant managers.

The question as to managers and coaches wearing uniforms like the players is equally perplexing. In no other sport do coaches dress like the players. With the exception of umpires and the occasional trainer coming on the field to tend to injured players, everyone else on the field is in uniform. The answer probably lies somewhere between two reader homework responses.

Gilland weighed in on the uniform question this way: Since the managers and coaches are on the field to talk to or remove the pitcher and coach at the bases, they are a part of play on the field, thus, they dress like the players. This could be at least partially true.

The answer provided by another reader, Jackie Moore, could blend with the above to solve the uniform quandary.

Truth be told, Jackie’s supposition was related to me by her husband, Mark Moore. According to Mark, Jackie supposes that in the early days, the manager and assistants were also players; therefore, everybody wore uniforms. That makes sense because player-managers were once common in baseball.

Thanks Jackie Moore and James Gilland for such a good job on your homework. Both of you get well deserved A’s.

The response was so good, I should have asked about something else I don’t understand: Why are baseball playing fields not uniform? Other sports require standard dimensions. There are no 80- or 110-yard football fields. Baseball outfields are all different.

A ball hit in one ballpark is a fly ball out and a home run in another. Why do home teams get to decide how far outfield fences are from home plate? It’s obvious that another homework assignment is needed ...

Joe McAdoo is former chairman of the communication department at Drury University.

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