Tigers Minor League Baseball Blog

Keeping us professional ballplayers happy before, during and after the game is no easy chore. In particular, for this moment’s sake I want to discuss the importance of our batboys. First off, if you don’t love baseball, there really isn’t much room to be a full time batboy. Now I am not speaking of the little six year olds who get to be on the field for the first two innings, but the kids who show up to the field when we do and spend as much time with us at home as anyone else. To make a small point on the guest batboys/girls; Our hitting coach Benny likes to play small jokes with these kids. Things like when the two coaches have their pre-game meeting Benny will send the poor kid out to take second base to the umpires to have it inspected. Or always the classic, go ask the other dugout if they stole our bucket of curveballs. It’s sad but it is these little fun jokes which make coming to the field fun everyday. Anyway, I digress, back to the real story. As I was saying our full time batboys do everything from shagging balls during batting practice to getting us food and ice cream before the game (yes that’s right; before the game). Basically the majority of chores we need done go through our crew of clubhouse rats, and I mean that with all due respect. It takes a different kind of person to put up with us day in and day out with all the complaining, bickering, demanding, swearing and downright disregard for any kind of manners. But that is what being part of a team is, they are as much a part of our daily lives as any of our other teammates. And on a final note, they are pretty good at picking up the bats.