The Third Base Coach

I like baseball. I played first base the first 50 years of my career, the natural position for a tall, slow guy. When I joined an old guys league, though, our team , The Fossils, had a member who was even taller and slower than I. Since no one wanted to play third, and I was the new guy, I played there until I was 70.

I learned a lot playing third, including an appreciation for third base coaches. They don't really tell the runner anything s/he doesn't already know. Oh, the runner may have temporarily forgotten how many outs there are, or whether to "run on anything," and it's good to be reminded.

The coach is there primarily, however, to remind the runner that although s/he is in hostile territory, where there are few islands of safety, s/he is not alone.

Third-base coaches and preachers have a lot in common.