After reading the Fanpost on the Cowboy coaching conundrum, I thought I would try and find someting about team chemistry in sports.  Lo and behold the first article I spotted was by a collegiate baseball coach. I have always been of the mind that chemistry breeds success, but this article has bufferred my thinking.  This is my favorite point he makes...

So you might say the relationship between team chemistry and team success is circular. As team chemistry improves, so does the team’s record, and as the team’s record improves, it becomes more and more cohesive.

I don't know whether this should be a Fanpost or a Fanshot, but I thought it might crete some conversation.  Anyway, here is the link. It is a pretty good read and perhaps will offer something for those on either side of the issue.

Team Chemistry

 Thanks for everyone that posted.  Some did not and got in anyway because we nneded them.  In your own words with a comment here or there.  Laugh it up...

Owner - rangeressery     I got really scared whenever the dad’s stopped pitching to us and my friends took over. I also couldn’t catch a fly ball whenever they would stick me put me in right field. The pure definition of a MLB owner.

GM - Adam J Morris    Because he knows . . .

Manager - hightowersmith     I played around . . . Totally incompetent. Enough said . . .

Bench coach - venturafearsnolan     Played through middle school, and was usually one of the worst kids on the team. I’m not an athletic person. Reminded me of Don Zimmer and that sealed it.

3B coach - zywica     Because he can give you an answer in no time at all, thus making him ideal for 3B coach.

1B coach / Catching Instructor - oc     Developed a cannon to second. Only four guys stole second on me the entire season. I can’’t remember how many I threw out, but it was a lot. City All-Stars.  Pony –– Hitting began to decline. Still, a bad-ass catcher. City All-Stars. Your typical "those that can, do and those that can’t, teach" player. Hitting went from mediocre to average. Off-year defensively. Perfect!!!!

Pitching coach - Jparks77     Anybody want to argue?

Bullpen coach - lonestar Jon     I made a halfhearted attempt to learn how to pitch because I couldn’t make the team at any other position, but that didn’t work out too well. Any questions?

Scouting Director - Wyoranger     Played a couple years...but I sucked. Couldn’t field, couldn’t throw, could hit a little . . . but I liked baseball. He may have to grow into the position, but I think he’ll be fine.

Media VP - TRanger     I also was the sports editor for the school paper that year and parlayed that into a gig as a sports writer for the college paper. I enjoyed writing and even snuck in a couple of stories over fantasy baseball and saber metrics, so I had a lot of fun doing it. And since his playing ability is "the only productive thing I could do was get hit by a pitch." He will be just fine...and this is who you talk to about the scoreboard!

C - Ryin A     Played 4 years of college ball and started at Catcher. I was your standard D1 catcher, hit about 260-280 but took my defense and game calling very seriously. Uh, Okey dokey. You got it!

Back up Catcher - Blev2     I played until 8th grade. I was a good defensive catcher but couldn’t ever hit the moving ball. Your typical back up catcher scouting report.

1B -NYTXFAN     Come high school I figured I had the make up of a good player so I tried out. And I was cut after the first round. It kinda hit me hard and I never really played baseball again. I mean I play catch and softball, but really it isn’t the same. A true player who never followed through on their dream will tell you that. Softball isn’t as intense as the real deal and playing catch, to me, as a pipe dream of what I could have had . . . and in true Robin Ventura charging the mound form . . . another chance.

 2B - Ed Coffin     Defensive whiz, awful bat. Had fence and warning track power, but not light tower power. Switch hitter with a good arm, a good glove, so got to play whenever I’d take the time. Ian Kinsler’s idol.

3B - T Coleman     Undersized 3B I played from 6 years old until I was 21. The last three years were with a semi-pro team. He starts on MY (not Michael Young) team.

Back up 3B/DH - Josey Wales     I was always one of the best players on my team. Dad had me hold my hands up like Yaz and of course I hit lefty (but threw right). I was power hitting, good field 3B and Brett / gentiles. If T Coleman had not played semi-pro baseball, you would be our starting 3B. Sorry . . .

SS - Pro82     Pretty much the only SS and I know how good I was. Good from deep in the hole. Range greater than FOTF and very good lead-off hitter. OBP always lead the team I play upon.

UT - Dirk Diggler     Osgood-Schlatter disease pretty much kills your athletic career for a few years. You can’t run or anything like that. It would actually hurt to walk up stairs sometimes. Anyway, since that killed my baseball career. You build it and they will come...another second chance!

OF - Longhorn     But, once batting against one of my friends in his backyard, he was pitching . . . for some dumb reason I wasn’t wearing a helmet. Sun got in my eyes during one of his pitches. It hit me smack in the left temple. Ever since then I couldn’t really shake that off . . . so as long as Nolan or Padilla is not on the mound, he is in the line-up. When they are pitching then RCCook is our 3rd OF.

OF - spurdynasty     I maintained a .400-.500 average because I never struck out and I could hit the ball wherever I wanted. Anybody that NEVER struck out and could hit the ball wherever he wanted, but only hit .400-.500, well . . . I still want him on the team and we needed another OF.

OF - knockoutking     My bro has been playing basically straight through from February until now and probably will through the end of his Sr. year –– he’s really good (D1 level-good) That good enough for me. If your brother is good, then, uh, oh you might be Mike Maddox . . . this is why we carry 4 OF . . .

OF - RCCook     I was usually the fourth outfielder. I was a pretty bad hitter, probably due to the fact I couldn’t see well I wound up getting glasses the summer after my last year of playing. So NEVER come to the park without your glasses, and you said it 4th OF, not me.

DH - t ball     I hit well, gapper stuff, lot of doubles, good speed. But when I got glasses in jr. high, I just stopped hitting. NEVER bring your glasses to the park. You and RCCook need to ride together.

P - Michael Cave     As a pitcher I was a control artist, didn’t throw harder than 88 or so probably. Worked more in the 82-85 range but I had a great 2 seamer and 3 other secondary pitches (in order of effectiveness: slider, CB, and CU) I could spot very well. I pitched from a low 3 quarters arm angle. I wish I was a lefty . . . ha, but alas you are not and now you are on our staff . . . it’s still not saying much though.

P - Rodney     I was a semi decent pitcher. I think that would be better than Luiz Mendoza. But if not you could find Black Francis breathing down your neck for a starter’s job.

P - Fireal20     Pitched through college . . . went to high school up in Krum (2A school) where I pitched and caught. Made the all-state team my senior year as a pitcher. A media department’s dream . . . from Krum to Arlington . . . Wow!

P - meatbonelefty     I don’t throw hard at all, low 80’s on a good day. As long as you promise to leave the cameramen alone and keep you hands to yourself you can play with us.

Closer - Black Francis     And I also pitched and caught a little. I could throw fairly hard and do it all day, but had no command at all and only a fastball. Perfect . . . any questions?

Roving pitching instructor - nonameoncard   Because he can't be in one place very long for personal reasons...and jparks77 really isn't that good.

International Scouting Director - Joey Matschulat   Because he has a foreign sounding name.

Bullpen catcher - RachelB   Our team was called the Little Angels and God knows we will need plenty of angels with this team.

Bench - willamos2   I played through 6th grade, and despite being one of the better players on my team, but I did not know what position you played. 

I apologize for leaving anyone off of the team that responded.  I think I will let the group decide where to play Save us.  I did not know what position he plays or if the rest of our team would play with him.

I've read LSB for a few years and only on occasion does anyone offer their baseball background.  There are some very knowledgeable people posting here.  I am assuming everyone here played the game.  That is usually why we are fans.  But I am, and maybe others are too, curious about everyone's basball history.  Did you play in HS?  College?  Professionally?  What position?  Were you any good?  When did you play?   Are you/were you a coach? 

I played from 6 years old through 18.  HS is as far as I played and played SS for the last 10 years. My first year in PeeWee League was 1961.  I coached fast pitch women's softball for 5 years in the 1990's.  Baseball conflicted with the sport from which I make my living, but I never lost my love for the symmetry of the game and have been a fan since watching Saturday afternoon baseball and listening to Dizzie Dean and PeeWee Reese call the games.

Anyway, I hope you will offer yours...

The grass at the Ballpark is a dwarf bermuda, Tifway 419.  If any of you are golfers, you may have heard of it.  419 can be mowed down to less than 1/2" and still take wear well.  Most of the MLB fields have fescue/bluegrass turf, but they are also in the northeastern part of the country where it does not get as hot and the springs are much cooler.   It appears that the Ballpark grass is cut somewhere around 1" in height.  419  will develop a thatch layer that makes it spongy and does not allow water to permeate to the root bed.  419 for this reason has to be verticut anually to remove this thatch layer.  The RBiA appears to overseed the 419 with a fescue/rye grass to make the grass green for opening day as bermuda grass does not begin to flourish until the ground temps begin to warm after winter, in the 50's and 60's.  If this is not done, the field turf would be thin and not so green for opening day.  Doing this creates a problem to growing the grass longer than they do.  As the days get warmer, the fescue/rye grass begins to die out, but it has been shading the 419 since it began its spring growth in March.  You cannot kill the fescue/rye grass alone without killing the bermuda (419). So they keep the fescue/rye grass alive as long as possible, then as it gets warm, its cut allows the 419 to get sun, thus alowing it to choke out the fescue/rye grass with which the field was overseeded.  If the grass is left at a higher height, it will be ever increasingly difficult to transition to the 419 in the late spring, early summer as it will not get the sun it needs to grow. thenwhen it gets hot, the fescue/rye will die out and then you would have a sparse field which nobody wants.  I contacted Dr. Alan Nathan, Univ of Ilinois, who has a website on the physics of baseball.  Here is the email and his response.

Email:  Most MLB parks have bluegrass/fescue grasses and some have a variety of hybrid Bermuda grasses.  Hybrid Bermuda grasses can be thatchy if not verticut regularly, but I doubt that any grounds crew would allow their field to have that happen.  My question is whether or not the type of grass can affect a ground ball?  I realize the height can affect a slow roller, but is there any measurable difference that grasses can have? If a team allowed their hybrid Bermuda to become thatchy, would that have any effect?

Answer:  I am not an expert on different types of grass nor do I know of any careful studies of the effect of different grasses on a ground ball. But for sure there must be an effect.  Some infields in MLB are known as "slow", some are "fast".  Moreover, I would bet that any particular field is tailored to the type desired by the home team, so the groundskeepers know how to make it slow or fast.  However, I don't know any more other than that general statement.

 By the way, the effect is not likely to be as large as it is on a golf green, since a golf ball rolls on the surface whereas a baseball is mostly bouncing on the infield. Once it gets to the outfield, it can be rolling, so the effect there may be greater.

 

He does concede that baseball people talk about "fast" and "slow" infields.  This is due to several reasons.

1.  Fescue/Rye grass areas have softer turf.  The ground is not nearly as packed as it is in the southern part of the US having little to no clay in the soil.  Softer turf equals a ground ball losing some of its forward momentum when it strikes the ground.

2.  Fescue/rye grass in cooler climates can be left longer than the grasses used in the sourthern part of the US, thus haveing an affect although minimalt on the speed of the ground ball unless it is a bunt or it gets to the outfiled.

So, as the type of grass itselt making a difference in the speed of the infiled is minimal, how firm the turf is in the infiled has a much greater affect on the speed of the ground ball.  Hard ground and short grass equals a fast infield.  You cannot grow the cool climate grasses throughout the year in Texas and whether the RBiA groundscrew can soften the infield, I do not know.  Soil surveys of Tarrant county show the soil has a fair amount of clay which packs and is virtually impossible to make soft.  Topsoil would have to be brought in to soften of the soil.  Then you would have to take a large amount of soil out of the RBiA or raise the filed level.  Both costly.  So, what you have is Texas which gets hot in the summer, bermuda grass that does not get really growing until after the beginning of the season forcing you to keep the grass short, and firm ground which leaves you with a "fast" infield.  But that is basically the remedy for slowing down a ground ball hit in Arlington.  The Braves, Marlins, and D-backs will have the same basic infields, although they may use another bermuda hybrid.