“THE CATCHER”

Baseball From a Woman’s Point of View
A Perspective by Janine O’Neill
Originally broadcast on KQED-FM, Thursday, May 29, 2003

Women learn to adapt to a lot of things. If you have a husband or a boyfriend, you know that one important adaptation is to the sport your man loves to watch. In my case it’s baseball, and now that it’s baseball season again, I look for things about the game that I can relate to.

I will never be able to name the line-up of the 1974 World Series between Oakland and Los Angeles. Nor will I ever know the meaning of earned run average, yet another of the meaningless statistics baseball specializes in.

Instead, I focus on my favorite player, the catcher. Although the catcher is always some tough, gnarly guy, in every important way he is like the woman of the team. The catcher is the least appreciated and least glorified member of the team. Just look at all of the uncomfortable stuff he has to wear, while everybody else just wears a baseball cap.

It’s also true that the catcher tells the pitcher what to pitch. The pitcher has to do it right of course, but like many women behind the scenes, the catcher is the brains behind the brawn. The catcher seems to be the least appreciated and least glorified member of the team, although he is often in a position to save the game ,and does, by blocking the plate and saving home. I am sure that they are smiling behind the grid-wire mask, but saving home is often just what they are expected to do.

The final, undeniable evidence that the catcher is like a woman in that while all the men are out on the field standing, kicking the grass, spitting and getting paid gobs of money, only the catcher has to stay at home, chasing after things, scrambling all around, cleaning up everybody else’s mess, you know, actually working the entire game, and STILL not get the recognition. Yes, thanks to the catcher, I can relate to baseball and spend more time with my husband.

With a Perspective, I’m Janine O’Neill.