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Press Box- We Are Family

By Randy Rutherford - Sports Writer | Mar 15, 2023

“There’s no crying in baseball!” It’s an iconic and funny line taken from the 1992 film ‘A League of their Own,’ made famous by Tom Hanks. Hanks plays the role of Jimmy Duggan, a washed-up-has-been player now coach, who forces a female player to cry when she couldn’t handle his harsh criticism of her play.

Well, Major League baseball has been close to tears in the last few years watching the continued downward slide of their popularity with the public. It’s no secret the major leagues have been receiving a lot of flak about their shrinking importance and a poky product compared to other major sports.

So Major League baseball is taking dramatic steps with several rule changes this year by implementing the pitch clock, shift restrictions and bigger bases. The goal is to improve player safety and mainly speed up the game.

Maybe these changes will help attract younger fans, too. After all, without the interest of a younger generation, baseball’s audience will continue to dwindle. Younger generations like to spend their free time on electronics cruising social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat and YouTube. Both the NBA and NFLs’ players are much more active on social media than MLB players. Fans eat this up and the NBA and NFL continue to grow in popularity.

Traditionally, baseball has held on to an older mentality. Old ways. Old rules. Maybe that’s why I like it so much. In the past when it came to social media there wasn’t much news in the MLB world, but that’s changing. Last year for the first-time Major-League Baseball had a successful year of exposure and growth through social media platforms, especially Twitter. I think most of you know my technology skills are limited, but my kids tell me social media lets them interact with brands and companies like baseball. It allows them to have a dialogue and offers unique opportunities to engage. Let’s see if MLB can continue to grab a bigger share of the marketplace.

So back to the changes. What can we expect and how will it affect the game we love? First, the bases are bigger to improve player safety, and more aggressive base running. The bases will increase from 15 inches square to 18 inches square, but home plate remains the same. Second, pitchers can only disengage from the pitching rubber twice per plate appearance. And there’s a new pitch clock that gives players 30 seconds to resume play between batters. And don’t forget between pitches, pitchers have 15 seconds with nobody on and 20 seconds if there is a base runner. It’s probably too early in spring training to draw conclusions from these changes but in spring games so far this season, the average length of a game has been reduced by 23 minutes compared to last year at this time.

Basketball season for both boys and girls has come to an end with all local teams failing to qualify for Charleston. Wrestling was well represented in Huntington at the state tournament as Magnolia featured two wrestlers, Lucas Zombotti and Jordan Davis, and Tyler had five qualifiers in Sean Winfrey, Kaden Huffman, Kendall Huffman, Colsen Spragg and Raustyn Wade. Unfortunately, none of the local boys made it the podium. While their final goals were not accomplished it still is a memory that will last forever. River boys and girls basketball completed great seasons with the boys advancing to the Division IV Districts before falling to Hiland 56-54. Their boys team finished with a record of 21-5. River girls moved along to the Division IV finals before also falling to Hiland 60-41 to finish the season with a record of 24-3.

I’ll have local spring sports news in the next Press Box but wanted to close with a good insider story about the Pirates and a local connection. My cousin, Joe Safety of St. Marys, WV, made his way through the professional ranks in public relations working with the Pirates, the New York Yankees, The Los Angeles Clippers and HBO before returning to his hometown to retire. The story I am about to share took place back on June 1, 1979. At the time Joe was the PR Director for the Pirates who were in a rain delay with the Padres. Although Pittsburgh had won five games in a row, they were still sputtering and standing in fourth place in the NL East six games behind the leader. As the rain pounded the turf of Three Rivers Stadium, Hall of Fame member Willie Stargell was looking for motivation for his teammates and knew something needed to be done to wake up his team. During rain delays the scoreboard would traditionally play music to entertain the fans. This particular day the song “We are Family” by Sister Sledge, which was extremely popular at the time, came on. Then it hit Willie, and he immediately picked up the phone in the dugout and called Joe. “When this song is over, I want you to make it the official song of the Pittsburgh Pirates,” Stargell told Joe. When the song finished the scoreboard flashed, “We Are Family, the official song of the 1979 Pirates.” The song worked. They didn’t know it that day, but it would also be the birth of a World Series Championship. “We are Family” is still played today at Pirate games. Now you know the rest of the story.