The Narrative

It's no secret that I have an affection for what some would call unconventional pitching. Sidearmers, submariners, guys that somehow throw 95 when they look like they're pushing the ball out of their hand, all these guys have a permanent spot in my baseball-loving heart.

The writer that I am loves them because of the narrative. A lot of these guys aren't prospects at any time in their career, for various reasons, many of them starting with the letter "v" and ending "elocity," and I root for the underdog. I want them to pitch in a three-tiered stadium at least once, and I want them to get guys out when the conventional wisdom says they can't, and of most importance to a writer, I want them to continue to give me a narrative.



As much as people both joke and complain about "the narrative" that any given story may have at any given moment, one cannot have writing without narrative. The human desire to put things into words and ways that make sense to us goes back into the ancient times, when storytelling around the fire was the only way of entertainment besides trying to not get killed by something much larger and angrier than oneself. Stories are how we communicate, and even a box score, that most unbiased of recitations, tells a story.

Of course, a box score also tells the most boring story about baseball, and an incomplete one at that. Baseball games themselves are narratives. "Root for the home team" is a bias, one of the most pervasive sort. Even if that was the only narrative being implemented by our own personal viewpoint, that would be enough. If we as consumers really wanted the purest form of sport, with no narratives, games would be played in like-conditioned boxes with no spectators, and only box scores robotically collected published...but once that information hit the wild, there would be no stopping the creation of a narrative.

So, yes, I will take my submarining rightys who only throw about 82, and I will write about them and their change-up artist A-ball compatriots, because it's a narrative that I enjoy. Other writers will take their country boys, their baseball miracles, their 17th-round draft picks (CJ Edwards was taken in the 48th round. I dare you to get more narrative-y than that.). The one thing that will never change is the story.

Baseball, like life, is all about the narrative.


As for my personal narrative, I wrote this while eating a lamb kabob and couscous, with water, while sitting in an airconditioned house with Twitter in the background. Your narrative may vary.