Chemistry is the defining characteristic of every team and is what can bring them greatness, or defeat. It is a function that every community of people develop and is critical to the success of group as a whole. Posotive chemistry can make people come together and push each other to new heights, while negative chemistry will have the inverse affect. I focused my writing on the chemistry of my High School baseball team in an effort to describe what it was like to be a member of the team.99
To conduct my research on West Potomac’s baseball team I interviewed a current senior on the team, and was myself a member of the team for four years. I explain why team chemistry is so important and went on to explain what the chemistry of West Potomac’s team felt like. Later in my writing I go into deeper detail and illustrate some of the wacky behaviors, superstitions and traditions we abided by.
Team chemistry is important because a baseball season is a marathon, not a sprint. It is one of the only team sports where individualism is on display. Every pitch the batter and the pitcher could be considered to be competing one on one. Of course the catcher is calling signs and the defense arranges themselves to make an out, but the primary focus is between the man in the batters box, and the pitcher standing 60 ft. 6 inches away. This individualism means that the best team will not always come out on top in fact 1 player often makes the difference in the game. To keep a team winning it is important that those individuals standing on the field can come together and get the best out of each other.
Team chemistry is what defines a successful team and a lackluster team. Great teams stay relaxed, and on every team there is always one dugout clown that keeps the teams spirits up and keeps pulse of the team going. I can think back to my sophomore year of baseball a frail and scrawny backup first baseman Zack “Dory” Belanger built a fire in our hearts every game. He didn’t care what the score was, or how much bigger anyone on the field was than him. He would heckle the opposing team from warm ups until the final out. He wasn’t just a loud yeller either he was a comedian. The man had no limits, girlfriends, half grown in beards, ugly swings and bizarre throwing mechanics all caught his wrath. I can remember game after game the coaches and even sometimes the umpires would tell him that if he didn’t tone down his insults that he would be thrown out of the game, something unheard of in high school athletics.
Behind the Scenes
As an observer to the game, you’d never know it, but the players on the filed can have a huge impact on how the umpires call the game. Talking to the umpire is actually one of the most important duties of a catcher. It’s not written down in any rulebook or taught as a skill but can still have a significant impact on the course of a game. What the catcher is trying to do is win over the umpire and hopefully steal some calls from the other team. Since both catchers are trying to do this I have always thought of it in my head as two princes trying to win over a Princess. Typically a catcher would start out by asking the umpire how their day has been going thus far. Then slowly begin to ask the umpire about their personal life and maybe share a little about their own lives. I would always say the count wrong and then once the umpire told me the correct count I would say, oh I’m sorry there’s a reason I’m a STEM guy. The jokes not very funny but it got at least a polite chuckle every time. There is a fine line that any position player has to walk between humility and humor while still trying to get their point across. It sounds silly but once a catcher is able to win over an umpire they can develop a relationship and have a serious impact on calls for the rest of the game.

Unwritten Rules
Outside the print pages of the official Virginia High School League baseball handbook there are many rules that players impose upon themselves. The most notable one only is enforced on Varsity because JV players just don’t have the ability to do it. After hitting a homerun many players will watch the ball fly and slowly trot around the bases. This is annoying to the other team but isn’t the end of the world. Many pitchers consider it a capital offense though if the batter flips his bat. It is the epitome of non-verbal trash talk and will often be acknowledged with a fastball to the head in the next inning.
A pitchers reaction, while well warranted, brings up another unwritten rule in itself. If anyone throws at one of our team’s batters, our pitcher is expected to return the favor. When pitchers begin to throw at other teams the tradition has long been to throw at the other teams best hitter and it has to come in a non critical moment. It’s not uncommon for weeks to go by before a team finally gets a chance to retaliate. Thus the game is kept from being a free for all and the casual observer may not notice anything more than a few wild pitches.

Superstitions
Even though the game of baseball has become increasingly based on numbers like batting average, earned run average, slugging percentage, and more complex statistics that evaluate players worth many athletes and coaches completely ignore the existence of these stats and instead prefer to rely on superstitions to help them win games. One of the most pervasive superstitions on the teams I’ve played on was the idea that if the bats in the bat rack are crossed any rally will fail. There was an idea and for many a true belief that crossed bats were cursed and anyone that hit while bats were crossed was doomed to failure. I can remember my strength and conditioning coach policed this phenomena every game. Any player caught crossing bats on the bat rack earned himself a conditioning workout after the game. There is nothing any baseball player hates more than sprinting from foul pole to foul pole after a game.
Some ball players are a little bit more creative. Many refuse to step on the foul line when taking the field believing that it is bad luck. Every now and then you will see someone counting the steps they take to the batters box. I never was that extreme but I made sure to enter the batters box the same way every time. Left foot in, swipe dirt with left foot out of front of batters box, right foot in, shuffle feet, adjust cup, and then wait for the pitcher to make their move. The whole at bat is a gamble if you try and mix it up trust me I’ve done it but never succeeded.

“Verbage”

Baseball players have their own unique way of talking to each other. The casual observer may notice that a lot of the sounds coming from the dugout aren’t discernable words, the sound more like loud mumbles. In an interview with Zack Day, a former teammate I learned that the newest phrases are the words “chowda,” “peppa,” and “Got Heeeeeeem.” They sound like the screams of a four year old still learning to speak when in fact, on a baseball diamond these words can mean a full sentence on their own. For example “Chowda” refers to how a pitcher is throwing. Instead of saying “oh that pitchers soft,” or “I could hit that” ball players will just yell “Chowda” and everyone around him will understand what he was saying. Then from this basic word, pronouns are added to make a more exaggerated statement. Saying “clam chowda” might mean I can clobber this pitcher but saying “ooh he’s got some spicy chowda” means that the pitcher has got some serious velocity on his fastball. These words have nothing to do with hiding a game plan from the opposition, or trying to be sneaky about what you are saying because the other team, and often the umpires all speak the same language. It’s almost as if the game

Nicholson pg. 6
of baseball developed its own regional dialect like Cajun or Chinglish and is just as difficult to understand for those not accustomed to the tongues.

Nicknames

Every member of the team had a nickname and all most all of them were derogatory. Zack “Dory” Belanger was nicknamed Dory because freshman year he was fat and had a chubby face that looked an astonishing amount like the character Dory from the movie Finding Nemo. Even when he grew up and skinny the nickname still stuck. I was nicknamed COACH (pronounced Coa-Ah-Oach) because I said “oh yeah coach” funny one time freshman year. These nicknames stuck and came to replace our actual names.

Conclusion

As a team we had great chemistry but lacked a solid work effort. We were the best of friends and started the season with undeniable success. After our 7-0 start we were world-beaters and became overconfident and developed a sense of complacency. We had the greatest chemistry of any team I had ever played on but it didn’t amount to anything. The first round in the playoffs we were knocked out by one of the weaker teams in the division. There is a famous quote from the movie Bull Durham “Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and sometimes it rains.”
Nicholson pg. 7
Baseball is a funny sport and sometimes even the best team in the world will lose. We had everything going for us but couldn’t win a game in the playoffs simply because that day it rained.