Sports

Q As a veteran sports theologian perhaps you could give insight into why baseball players spit as much as they do? I watch a lot of sports, and nowhere do they spit as much as they do in baseball. — Dave, Kettering

A Sports theologian? Heavy stuff. Does that make me the Right Reverend Screwball McCoy? Spitting is baseball history and tradition. It probably started when pitchers were allowed to spit on the ball and throw spitters. Now that spitters are outlawed, the players have to spit elsewhere. Actually, I believe it is in the rulebook (10.19(z): "Players are required to spit in the batter's box, on the basepaths, in the outfield, on the dugout floor and on each other, but never, never, never on the ball."

Q Maybe it is time we start looking at Dusty Baker, and maybe he's not the man to rebuild the Reds. Maybe they're trying to teach Jay Bruce too much. Maybe some of the decisions that have been made by Baker are just flat wrong, letting a man try to bunt when he hasn't done it in his major-league career. Someone has to come in there and build some heart. — Guy, Canal Winchester

A Maybe that's a whole bunch of maybes. I look at Baker every day and I see a hard-working, knowledgeable baseball man who has not yet managed 90 games for the Reds. Mostly, these aren't his players. It is what he inherited, and it isn't very good. A major-league player should know how to bunt. Period. End of story. How do you build heart? Doesn't that make it artificial? Maybe I'm wrong, but maybe I'm not.