Kansas City Star Logo

Paying attention: it makes the game worthwhile | The Kansas City Star

×
  • E-edition
  • Home
    • Customer Service
    • Newsletters
  • Obituaries

    • All News
    • Local news
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • The Buzz
    • Nation & World
    • 913
    • Cass County
    • Lee's Summit
    • Video
    • Photos
    • All Sports
    • Chiefs
    • Royals
    • Royals photos
    • Sporting KC
    • Olympics
    • Kansas
    • Missouri
    • K-State
    • High School
    • Scores & Stats
    • NASCAR
    • Outdoors
    • NBA
    • Buy Tickets
    • Blogs & Columns
    • The Full 90
    • Campus Corner
    • For Pete's Sake
    • Sam Mellinger
    • Vahe Gregorian
    • Politics
    • Elections
    • The Missouri Influencer Series
    • All Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Influencers Opinion
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Colleen Nelson
    • Derek Donovan
    • Dave Helling
    • Melinda Henneberger
    • Steve Kraske
    • Toriano Porter
    • Guest commentary
    • Syndicated columnists
    • Submit a Letter
    • Entertainment
    • Ink
    • Events
    • Arts & Culture
    • Music
    • Comics
    • Stargazing
    • Puzzles & Games
    • Movies
    • Horoscopes
    • Arts
    • TV
    • Restaurants
    • Books
    • Star TV listings
    • All Business
    • Cityscape
    • Development
    • Workplace
    • Personal Finance
    • National/International
    • Technology
    • Kids & Money
    • All Living
    • Chow Town
    • Eat & Drink
    • House & Home
    • KC Gardens
    • Advice columns
    • Faith
    • Travel
    • Family

    • True Blue app
    • Red Zone Extra
    • Star news apps
    • Extra Time KC

  • Cars
  • Contests
  • Jobs
  • Moonlighting
  • Homes
    • Place an ad
    • All Classifieds
  • Spaces
  • KC Weddings

  • Contact us
  • Mobile & Apps

Judging the Royals

Judging the Royals

Paying attention: it makes the game worthwhile

By LEE JUDGE

ljudge@kcstar.com

    ORDER REPRINT →

April 08, 2015 03:07 PM

Watching baseball — I mean really watching baseball — is difficult. Score, inning, number of outs, count, what pitch was just thrown, what pitch might be thrown next, incremental adjustments by the defenders, whether the pitcher is throwing from the slide step, where the catcher sets up; all of this stuff matters. And you have to pay attention if you really want to understand.

The catcher calls for an off-speed pitch, the shortstop picks up the sign, passes it to the third baseman and the third baseman shuffles two steps to his right as the pitcher delivers the ball. Pay attention to that kind of detail and a routine grounder to third base becomes a marvel of teamwork, strategy and execution.

But paying attention to that kind of detail is difficult.

I was reminded of that recently when two of my sons — huge NBA fans — decided to watch a Houston Rockets game and focus on James Harden. They’re appalled that Harden (a guy who neglects to play defense much of the time) is being talked up as an MVP candidate. If you score 30, but let the other guy score 31, you’re not really helping your team.

Sign Up and Save

Get six months of free digital access to The Kansas City Star

SUBSCRIBE WITH GOOGLE

#ReadLocal

You don’t need metrics; just watch a Rockets game, focus exclusively on Harden and you’ll see what they mean. And that’s what they decided to do: lock in on Harden and try to figure out how many points he scored vs. how many he gave up — but it wasn’t easy.

Say Harden loses the guy he’s defending — which he does on a regular basis — and someone on the other team passes the ball to the open guy. Then one of Harden’s teammates has to leave his guy to cover the guy Harden left open. Now Harden’s guy passes to the new guy that’s open and if that guy scores, it will look like Harden’s teammate gave up the points.

Now take a play where three or four passes and defensive rotations happen quickly and you might see a guy on the other side of the court score — a guy Harden never got near. You might have to rewind the play to realize a guy in the far corner scored after a series of passes because Harden lost his guy in the near corner.

After watching the Rockets game, my sons said you would need 10 guys watching one game (so each player would have eyes on him) or one guy watching a game 10 times. That’s the only way to understand what everyone was doing and who was responsible for what.

And that’s why we love numbers; reading a box score is much easier than really paying attention. But once you’re taught what to look for you see a hundred things that don’t show up in the numbers:

▪ A guy doesn’t want to look bad so he loafs on an infield pop fly that’s in his area of responsibility. A teammate tries to make the play and gets an error on a ball he shouldn’t have been forced to field.

▪ A smart center fielder is playing next to a blockhead in right. The smart guy makes the dumb guy better by making sure he’s in the right position.

▪ A pitcher has a long inning, but finally gets that third out. One of his teammates leads off the next inning and takes pitches until he has two strikes. He eventually strikes out, but did so in an effort to let his pitcher rest.

If you’re not locked in you won’t notice stuff like this. It’s why those of us in the media ask so many bad questions: we haven’t paid attention to detail so we can’t ask anything more meaningful than “what does it mean that you’re team came back in the bottom of the ninth” or “talk about that home run you hit in the sixth.” And as media members are asked to do more and more — take notes, score the game, tweet — it gets harder and harder to focus on the game, even if you want to.

But if you don’t watch, if you don’t pay attention, if all you do is look at box scores you may know the numbers, but you’re missing the game. It may not be as easy as looking as the numbers, but paying attention is what makes the game worthwhile.

To reach Lee Judge, call 816-234-4482 or send email to ljudge@kcstar.com. Follow him on Twitter: @leejudge8.

  Comments  

Videos

Ned Yost explains why Kelvin Herrera is out as Royals closer

Ned Yost says Alex Gordon wasn't benched, just got days off to work on swing

View More Video

Trending Stories

Schlitterbahn charges tossed. Judge says Kansas AG ‘irreparably tainted’ grand jury

February 22, 2019 12:24 PM

How and why Kansas freshman Ochai Agbaji went from overlooked recruit to NBA prospect

February 21, 2019 12:53 PM

Anti-gay advocate who lobbied in Kansas now ‘security concern’ in Missouri statehouse

February 21, 2019 10:25 AM

Patriots owner Robert Kraft is among the hundreds charged in Florida sex traffic sting

February 22, 2019 11:23 AM

Airport committee votes to approve agreements with KCI single terminal developer

February 21, 2019 02:07 PM

Read Next

Royals pre-draft workouts: what a team can learn by seeing a prospect in person

Royals

Royals pre-draft workouts: what a team can learn by seeing a prospect in person

By Lee Judge

    ORDER REPRINT →

June 14, 2018 05:13 PM

There are good reasons MLB teams like the Royals like to use individual workouts to get a closer look at the attributes of a baseball prospect

KEEP READING

Sign Up and Save

#ReadLocal

Get six months of free digital access to The Kansas City Star

SUBSCRIBE WITH GOOGLE

MORE JUDGING THE ROYALS

Use it or lose it: Why most big-league pitchers can’t hit a lick

Royals

Use it or lose it: Why most big-league pitchers can’t hit a lick

May 21, 2018 12:14 PM
What happens when a Royals player loses it? Why, he 'snaps,' of course

Royals

What happens when a Royals player loses it? Why, he 'snaps,' of course

May 15, 2018 02:40 PM
Big-league scorekeeping: Does baseball need team errors?

Royals

Big-league scorekeeping: Does baseball need team errors?

May 10, 2018 02:18 PM
Outfield positioning? For the Royals, it’s in the cards

Royals

Outfield positioning? For the Royals, it’s in the cards

May 01, 2018 03:59 PM
Cold truth about cryotherapy: Holy %#*&, the longest three minutes of my life

Royals

Cold truth about cryotherapy: Holy %#*&, the longest three minutes of my life

April 24, 2018 11:52 AM
The Royals get shifty: a handy guide to infield positioning

Judging the Royals

The Royals get shifty: a handy guide to infield positioning

April 11, 2018 06:52 PM
Take Us With You

Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand.

Subscriptions
  • Start a Subscription
  • Customer Service
  • eEdition
  • Vacation Hold
  • Pay Your Bill
  • Rewards
Learn More
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletters
  • News in Education
Advertising
  • Advertising information
  • Print
  • Digital
  • Place a Classified
  • Local Deals
Copyright
Commenting Policy
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service


Back to Story