"SMALL BALL"

SMALL BALL

When I was a kid, I lived, breathed, and ate, slept baseball. Yup I loved the Game, and the Game within the Game. I was fortunate enough to have the talent to be scouted for the Phillies, and was invited to a try out. Unfortunately, my Dad felt my path should lead another direction, thus the try out never happened. However, my passion for the sport never waned.

Therefore, I felt that since, I’m starting up a new Blog site, I thought for my inaugural offering I’d write about Base Ball ;o))

In the sport of baseball, small-ball is an informal and colloquial term for an offensive strategy in which the batting team emphasizes placing runners on base and then advancing them into position to score a run in a deliberate, methodical way. This strategy places a high value on individual runs and attempts to score them without requiring extra base hits, or sometimes without base hits at all, instead using bases on balls, stolen bases, sacrifice bunt or sacrifice fly balls, the hit-and-run play, and aggressive base running with such plays as the contact play. A commonly used term for a run produced playing small-ball is a "manufactured run". This style of play is more often found in National League game situations than in the American League due in large part to the absence of the designated hitter in the National League.

Teams may incorporate a small-ball strategy for a variety of reasons, including:

1.     They are confident that their pitching staff will allow very few runs, thus one or two runs may win the game.

2.     The opposing pitching staff allows few hits, especially extra-base hits, and small-ball may be the best way to score runs at all.

3.     The team lacks consistent hitters and must find a way to score runs with few base hits.

4.     The team has several members who are very quick and are likely to steal bases, or go from first base to third base on a single.

5.     The team is in the late innings of a close game and a single run will tie the game, break a tie, or extend a narrow lead.

Most commonly, a small-ball strategy will be employed during the course of a game, such as in case #4, above. A team could also start the game with the intention of playing small-ball, but then change from this strategy at some point during a game, depending on circumstances, such as when the opposing pitcher is struggling or has left the game, or if the team is ahead or behind by several runs.