It’s baseball season! For diehard fans of America’s favorite pastime, this is an exciting time of the year. Just the sounds and smells of the stadium on a warm summer night are enough to get the heart of most enthusiasts pumping a little faster. However, not everyone shares the same passion and love for the game. Some believe it to be slow, boring, and difficult to watch. Personally, I think it’s all about perspective.
Consider that 80% of the players on the field are all facing the same direction. The other 20% (the batter and the catcher) are facing the other players on the field. And the catcher is the only player that has this perspective and the only one involved in every play for the entire game. The catcher is the field commander and sees the game like no other. This makes being a spectator from behind the plate an enlightening experience where a 6-4-3 double play looks like ballet and a sacrifice fly to right field a bank heist. For this reason, it’s no wonder so many catchers ascend to the role of big-league managers. They look at the game differently.