Good night at the plate

Though I am one of the best hitters on the team I always end up hitting last for the order of guys. I am not sure why. Maybe it is prejudice that causes me to hit low. People who put batting line ups together do have a difficult job. No one wants to hit last, me included. But at the same time, if you do not hit well, then you will be hitting last.

Typically you want someone who is both very fast and has a high on base average (OBA) to hit lead off. Following that another faster person with a high OBA. For me once I get to my third, fourth, and fifth batters I want people who both have power, meaning a high slugging percentage, and good batting average. My number four hitter is usually the guy with the most power. The goal is to get the bases loaded or runners in scoring position, then your number four hits them all in. I have my number five hitter have power as well because he can do additional clean up if necessary.

My number six batter in softball usually is slower but has a high batting average. After that it is sort of up in the air. I will have slow and fast guys hitting around each other. It is not the best situation to do that because the slow guys will keep the fast guys from getting extra bases, but when I am at the bottom of the order I make the assumption that they will only be getting one hit a game.

So in my situation on this team is that I have a good stick with some power. I should probably hit around number five or six. But I am hitting last. Behind people who are not getting on base. With my batting average and speed I should be scoring a lot of RBI. But I don’t.

Also, one thing that goes into line ups are the intangibles. Sometimes when a batting order is hot, you don’t mess with it. The last thing I want to do is to move someone and have them have a different mindset going into the batters box. I have noticed over the last year that when I am hitting dead-last I bat terribly. I am actually batting second to last on this team, but last in terms of guys, as it is a co-ed team. I think this year so far when I am hitting dead-last I am about five for twenty or something horrible like that.

Anyway, tonight at the plate I hit the ball very well. I was on every time except for once. I had a double and a triple as well. We went on to lose the game. It was a close one. We were actually in a big hole to start with, but chipped away coming back to take the lead in the middle innings. But the other team started to hit well and retook the lead. Then in the final inning added four runs to be up by six. We went out there deflated and our hitting showed it. We ended up losing.

I went over to Russell’s place. We had some breakfast for dinner stuff. It was very yummy. We sat round chatting and chowing for a while before the majority of the group had to head off.