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| Petr Kruml, who experiences both ends of a relay throw as one of our outfielders and catchers. |
Gilligan and his crew after their three-hour tour went awry, Tom Hanks in 'Cast Away', the 'Lost' characters, they've all experienced the feeling. A stand-up comic after a bad joke, a wide receiver after dropping a wide open touchdown in the end zone, the singer while forgetting the words while performing the 'Star Spangled Banner' before the game, they've all been there.
Tack the cutoff man - the infielder who takes the throw from the outfielder and then relays the ball to second base, third base or home plate in baseball - to the list ... at least with my club this season. The simple act of getting the ball cleanly to the cutoff man while he's out there on his island has been every bit the adventure for my outfielders, which has caused a few more grey hairs to work their way into my scalp over the course of these past seven months.
To back things up for those less in the know when it comes to this part of the game, coaches teach outfielders to throw the ball "through the cutoff man's head" so he will have the option of cutting it and holding it, relaying it to the base he's being told to relay it to, or let it go through if there is a close play at the bag or plate and he's told to let it go through. A ball which hops to the cutoff man, preferably a easier-to-handle long hop over a tough-to-handle short hop, is also acceptable.
What is not acceptable is a ball that sails over the cutoff man's head, leaving him without options and generally leading to a trail runner advancing another base, or a throw which tails to the left or right, pulling the cutoff man off the straight line in which he has aligned himself from where the outfielder fielded the ball to the bag or plate that we want the ball to be relayed to. Straight lines, Euclid first told us centuries ago, are very productive, and there is no more perfect an example of this than on a well-executed relay in baseball.
My guys are working hard to fix our current problem of outfielders sailing those balls over the head of the cutoff men and letting balls tail off in different directions. But I cannot deny the fact that it is a concern of mine as we are now just eight days from playing in our league's championship game, and we're still struggling with this aspect of the game that should have been shored up back in the spring. We have spent hours trying to get it right, and will continue to do so as we advance through our postseason (we have also qualified for the Czech Baseball Association's 'promotion/relegation series', where we will face one of the bottom two teams from the first division in a best-of-five series in attempt to advance back to the Extraliga for the first time since 2009).
Hopefully, my guys will read this and use it as motivation to improve, so I can write a follow-up on how much better we have gotten at executing the relay. Hopefully, I won't have to toss my fungo bat up in frustration while screaming "hit your cut!" anymore because of failed relay throws that sail into the dugout or off the backstop. Hopefully, this becomes a non-issue moving forward and we can focus on other facets of the game that we'd like to continue to improve upon this fall.
I know our cutoff men would appreciate it, it's awful lonely out there on that island without a baseball to catch and a relay throw to make.