Baseball Vs Lacrosse

March is here and spring sports have arrived. Parents across the country are deciding whether Johnny will play baseball or lacrosse. Here is an unbiased comparison to assist those undecided families.

Apple pie and baseball. That is America. It's who we are. Baseball is embedded in our culture and was our national pastime for over a century. Sorry baseball fans but the NFL now rules. They say that Abner Doubleday invented the game but evidently, he was busy fighting in the Civil War. Yes, that Civil War. Whatever its origins, baseball has stood the test of time and is cemented as one of America's favorite sports. 

Lacrosse was first played by Native American Indians in the late 1700s. The game started in the St. Lawrence Valley, wherever that is? In the early 1900s lacrosse spread from Canada to the Northeast corner of America. Today the best players and collegiate teams remain in the Northeast. And even though lacrosse has been around for 100+ years, it still doesn't get a seat at the big kids' table. It never will. Lacrosse isn't in the conversation. While one of America's oldest team sports, lacrosse never caught our national attention.

I get it. I grew up a Los Angeles Dodger fan and started playing Little League as a 7-year-old. We went to Dodger Stadium, listened to Vin Scully and ate Dodger Dogs. We spent hours and hours playing baseball. We played pickle waiting for the school bus every morning. We played over-the-line on our dead-end street until darkness arrived. Everyone traded baseball cards. It's just what we did. Baseball was all we knew.

Fast forward to the twenty-first century, and a funny thing happened on the way to the baseball diamond. Young boys AND young girls have discovered a different spring sport that appeals to them. Evidently, running around in a helmet and pads, carrying a metal stick, and hitting people is quite fun. Lacrosse is a fast-paced game with lots of action. This doesn't exactly describe baseball. Lacrosse is the pretty girl that just transferred into your junior-high class. Baseball is the older girl that never paid any attention to you because she didn't have to. Baseball still requires that kids stand-alone in right field for 90 minutes. Picking daises remains more annoying than ever. I know because I often played in right (1). My dad used to tell me that right field is where they put the best player. Nice try, Dad.

My son started playing baseball when he was just five. I coached his first T-ball team and for two more long years after. The T-ball years remain my favorite. It has always been impossible to explain the rules of baseball to women of any age OR young boys with a 14-second attention span. "Remember Billy, you have a force out at second base. Trevor, there are now 2 outs, so run on contact. Brady, remember to tag up, but make sure the left-fielder catches the ball first." It's maddening. Tee-ball was easy. You just placed the ball on the tee and hoped that Johnny would put the ball in play. If you got three actual outs in a four-inning game, it was world-class defense. It just didn't happen. 

I'll never forget the time a left-handed batter hit a bullet towards the first basemen. It took two hops and was headed straight for right field until it didn't. The 4-foot kid at first base waved his glove like a magic wand and remarkably the ball landed in his mitt. He was maybe two feet from the first-base bag. All he needed to do was move his foot and touch the base. That didn't happen. The four-footer looked all around and smiled. He simply held the ball. Parents from both teams yelled: "touch the base, touch the base.” But what did that mean to a 6-year-old? Absolutely nothing. It only took the batter 7 minutes to wander down the first base line but he reached safely. The ball remained 2 feet away. The scorer probably ruled it as an infield single or, better yet a "young" fielder's choice. It's still one of my fondest baseball memories ever.  

As a young father, I always knew my son would play baseball.  It’s why I spent endless hours doing my best to teach him how to play. It's why I worked so hard to coach the other players. Like many youth sports, baseball has three categories of players. 1/3 were skilled kids that loved the game. I felt an obligation to teach this group and further their skills. 1/3 were like my son. They were competent and wanted to have some fun, but they could take it or leave it. The remaining third were not remotely interested in baseball and my primary role was as a babysitter. These kids couldn't have cared less what Buttermaker was saying. 

Coaching baseball to boys under 10 was an absolute nightmare. I shall never forget the joys of lugging a heavy burlap bag of bats and helmets back and forth to the field. Then you had to go back and grab the equally awkward paint bucket full of baseballs. What other sports ask that six and seven-year-olds carry around aluminum bats and dodge hard-hit balls headed directly at them? The danger is everywhere. Real danger. Sure they had helmets but only if you could remind the monkeys to wear them. 

As a baseball coach in Portland you also need to be a skilled weather forecaster. It rains well into May, so the first two months of the season are spent guessing if the field is dry enough to practice and play on. I'd usually guess wrong and have 12 kids show up in a driving rain shower. There was always the 1 mom that asked. "Coach, why didn't you cancel practice"? “I don't know, maybe because it was dry and sunny 12 minutes ago." Then invariably the opposite would happen. A typhoon blows through the city at 3:45 pm and I quickly activate the phone tree to notify the team that practice will be canceled. But by 4:30, the sun is back out, and the fields were just fine. And yes, one of the babysitter Moms would usually call wondering why I wasn't there to look after Colton.

Thankfully, one day the lacrosse gods happened upon our family, and our lives forever changed. My wife was speaking with another mother in the stands. The other Mom had mentioned lacrosse and it sounded intriguing. Coincidentally, a week later my 10-year-old walked up after another day in right field. 

Son: "Dad, do you think I can try a different sport besides baseball next year…it’s kind of boring?"

Dad: "Sure. You can try whatever you want. What are you thinking about?"

Son: “Mom said something about lacrosse.”

Dad: "What's lacrosse?"

That was all it took. The rest is history. My son enjoyed lacrosse for the next seven years and lettered at Jesuit High. He even started his last few games as a Senior.

The differences between baseball and lacrosse couldn't be starker. It's like watching paint dry versus watching the Kentucky Derby. In one sport, you stand, watch, and wait endlessly for something…anything to happen. The other game is non-stop action, constant running, and full contact. 

It certainly didn't hurt my son's interest that I had never played lacrosse. He liked that fact. I couldn't tell him how to play. I couldn't show him how to hold the stick or catch the ball. It was his game to learn and master. I still don't understand many of the rules. Lacrosse was his game 100%. I was there to support him but my knowledge was limited. My skills were even more limited. When he first caught the lacrosse bug he needed reps above all. It was quickly apparent that a lacrosse stick and I would never be friends. It was awkward. I couldn't figure it out. It's funny and ironic how I improvised. After weeks of trying the lacrosse stick, I gave up. Being a native baseball fan I had the brilliant idea to bring my baseball glove to the practice field. I’d catch the lacrosse balls in my mitt and then throw the balls to him. It worked out just fine.

The best comparison between lacrosse vs. baseball is from the standpoint of a fan. I remember going to games at Rock Creek, which is a massive multi-sport facility that hosted both lacrosse and baseball. On a sunny Saturday morning, I would walk by the baseball diamonds and just stare at the parents and grandparents. It was pure agony. 8-year-old Danny had just walked the bases loaded, again. 4 pitches in a row, all in the dirt and nowhere near the plate or the hapless catcher. I'd watch for 5-10 minutes and just smile. The stands were usually quiet and somber.

A short walk to the lacrosse fields offered an entirely different experience. Here it was 60 minutes of non-stop action. The fact that lacrosse has a clock and a defined beginning and end were never lost on me. The lacrosse parents were always loud and fully engaged. "Run Beck Run." This was the mantra of a fellow player's mother. She would yell and scream at the top of her lungs. Even the beaten-down baseball people heard her. It bothered the hell out of me initially but soon it was music to my ears. She was just passionate. Lacrosse has that effect. Thanks, Kate!

Oregon weather doesn't affect lacrosse. On many game days, we would arrive at 8 am to cold rain and howling wind. Lacrosse parents would bitch and moan as we slowly marched past the baseball diamond. On rainy days, the baseball folks were more quiet than usual because they weren't there! The diamonds were empty. There were no games. I'd picture all the smiling grandparents that were home, enjoying the fireplace, delighted they didn't have to endure the elements. Advantage baseball. The lacrosse parents trudged towards the field with umbrellas and blankets. Our thermoses were full of coffee, hot cocoa, or sometimes Baileys. We survived the elements and cheered for our kids. And were certainly tougher than the baseball parents.

Today, lacrosse is on fire across the country. Each spring, new kids are being exposed to this fast-growing sport. Meanwhile, Little League enrollment is flat, especially in cities like Portland without an MLB team. I think a lot of it has to do with patience or lack thereof. Baseball is an art form. It has its language that takes years to learn. Our children now live on their devices and need immediate stimulation and activity. I think lacrosse answers that need better than baseball. Lacrosse is more accessible to kids. It moves more quickly and has a pace to it. The little monsters can also get out some aggression and hit someone. In baseball, the only ones letting out aggression are the dads. Please don't get me started on baseball dads. Baseball is like watching Picasso.  The payoff is fantastic, but you might be waiting a while. Lacrosse is like reading the comics. It's quick and fun, and you don't need to think that much.

I will always love baseball, and there will always be more baseball players than lacrosse players. Baseball is not going anywhere, and that's a good thing. Baseball does now have fierce competition for the best spring athletes. I'm just happy my son introduced me to lacrosse. It was a fun ride while it lasted. And while there is no crying in baseball, there is no cheating in lacrosse. Dodger fans want our World Series trophies from 2017 and 2018.

(1) I did eventually play shortstop and pitcher. And the Summer League Orioles won it all in 1980!