Coaching during the dog days of summer gives one time to reflect. Like our brothers from the movie Wedding Crashers, there is a code to our craft. So here's the list, and if you're a ballplayer, adhere to these at all times, failure to do so results in you, well...looking like you have no idea what the heck you're doing. So today, I give you the Code of Baseball:
1. Respect the Game
2. What goes up, must come down, unless it goes over a wall.
3. Don’t Show Up Your Teammates
4. Keep your head down
5. Hustle Everywhere
6. Don’t run into an Out
7. Only steal if you won’t get caught.
8. Swing Hard in case Ya Hit it.
9. There’s No Crying in baseball
10. Talk it Up.
11. Best Pitch is Strike One.
12. When Running towards a Wall, if You’re Scared, Go to Church.
13. One Hand, or Two Hands, Just Catch It.
14. On the field, the Direction of Your Hat is the Direction of Your Life, (Unless you’re Ken Griffey Jr.) at least on the field.
15. Have Fun, Play Hard.
16. We Got Ice. No seriously, or at least we can get some if needed.
17. Get Dirty, Play Clean. Thank your mom for washing your stuff.
18. Back Up Everything
19. On A No-Doubter, OF’s turn and give it a look.
20. Keep Your Head Up
21. Clean Your Spikes
22. Bring Your Own Glove, Spikes, and Hat.
23. Tuck Your Skirt In
24. You Call It, You Catch It
25. Keep Your Dignity at All Times
26. Ball Don’t Lie
27. Respect a Man’s Grass
28. Don’t Step on the Lines
29. Don’t Complain, Work Harder
30. If You Can’t Quote Sandlot, You Need to Watch it Again
31. Take Care of the Ball
32. It’s Not the Bat’s Fault.
33. The Baseball gods are always watching.
34. Get Down.
35. If You Want Something Fair, try Chess.
36. Keep Your Eye On The Ball.
37. Chicks Dig the Long Ball.
38. Know When to Dog Pile
39. If You’re Gonna Chirp, Be Prepared
40. Make the Best of Rain Delays
41. Play the Game the Right Way
42. If you can play this game well, height, weight, race, religion, it doesn't matter, you're a ball player.
43. Stay on the mound until the coach gets there, look him in the eye, hand him the ball.
44. If you can't say anything nice, say it in your glove.
45. You can't hit a 5-run home run, stay within yourself.
46. Ask questions
47. Be Aware of the situation at all times
48. It's only boring if you don't know what's going on. Or you're boring.
49. If you're gonna Pimp it, it better go out.
50. Same applies to bat flips.
51. Hustle around the bases on a home run, especially if you didn't hit it.
52. Befriend the Umpires, you'll likely have them again.
53. Be the player you would want on your own team.
54. You're not bigger than the game
55. When you're hot, stay humble, or the game will do it for you.
56. Superstitions are real, respect them.
57. If the scoreboard shows the pitch velo and you're pitching, it's not for you to look at.
58. Don't lunge at first base, your ankles will thank you.
59. You're allowed to wear sunglasses, use them.
60. If you lose it in the sun, hang in there with your glove up, see what happens.
61. Man Up.
62. If you miss it, Go Get It.
63. A Tweener and a Duck still get you on base.
64. It's not the Ump's fault. Grow up. Ok it might be his fault, but still, Man Up.
65. Remember where you put your hat and glove in the dugout.
66. Hustle Back on a K, you had your chance.
67. A Walk doesn't literally mean WALK. You're not Pujols, RUN DUMMY!
68. You Don't Talk about the No-No
69. YOU NEVER TALK ABOUT THE NO-NO
70. If someone asks you, sign the ball.
71. If you don't know all these yet, it's a good time to learn.
72. Get into the history of the game.
73. Yes we all know how Bonds hit 73, move on.
74. If you don't want the hitter to pimp it, don't give it up
75. Learn your Baseball Cliches for interviews.
76. Don't be THAT guy.
77. Be a part of the team. It's an individual sport, in a team concept, embrace the team aspect.
78. Help your teammates get better. Even Smalls was playable halfway through that summer.
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