Pitcher or Hitter?

A strikeout is cheered and applauded by the crowd as it should be. When that same pitcher racks up between 10 and 15 strikeouts in a game, they’re also applauded for their performance.

Conversely, when a hitter smashes a home run, the crowd stands up, cheers the round-tripper, and expresses their joy, even if it’s just a solo shot. When it’s a grand slam, the crowd goes wild. Players from the dugout come out and wait for the hitter, congratulating them with all sorts of choreographed celebrations you’d see in other sports.

The real spectacle in baseball is the home run, or failing that, a hit, which is also applauded, especially when it’s a double or triple and drives in runs.

Power hitters are adored; we track their batting averages but especially the number of home runs they produce game after game throughout their careers. Statistically, there are more Hall of Fame hitters than pitchers.

The home run in baseball is like the goal in soccer, the try in rugby, the three-pointer in basketball, the touchdown in American football. It’s what brings the crowd in, for the adrenaline it triggers in the players, the spectators, the commentators, the journalists, the replay videos…

So when a championship leans too heavily on the pitcher and the hitters underperform, the spectacle is diminished. And let the purists say what they will, but sport is first and foremost a spectacle, a moment of collective euphoria that lets us fire up our emotional engines and live better.

For a few years now, the trend has been shifting back towards the dominant pitcher, diminishing the spectacle. Since the start of the year, in MLB, the trend has been confirmed. Read the excellent article by The Free Agent: here

What about in France? We’ve already discussed how the pitcher is dominant, too dominant, and how the number of home runs and hits drops every year. We’re in the same boat as the US, with the same crowd, getting fired up over home runs and hits. A D1 championship matchday can go by without a single home run. Foreign pitchers are killing the spectacle, and foreign hitters (a maximum of three in the line-up) can’t keep up. Sometimes a French player makes a brief appearance.

How are we going to captivate French crowds if we don’t deliver the spectacle demanded by audiences worldwide? That’s a real question! How can we help our D1 and D2 championships produce more home runs and hits, and make the dominance of foreign pitchers less overwhelming? Are there solutions other than changing the rules, like the Americans did in the 1980s? (For example, is the rule of giving a powerful hitter first base without swinging good for the spectacle…)

You might tell me that spectacle isn’t everything and that we need to keep a level head so it doesn’t turn into mere circus games. Do we have a choice in France? How can we get people talking about our sports if the matches don’t deliver an especially appealing spectacle? Looking at the start of the season in France, that’s not the trend. Yes, the batting averages are strong: 8 players are batting over .500, which is very impressive. But in D1, after 20 games played, we’ve only seen 2 home runs!!! D2 isn’t any better, with 8 home runs in 42 games played. That’s an average of 0.1 home runs per game in D1 and 0.2 in D2!!

Didier CANNIOUX