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The principle of charity is about giving the benefit of the doubt to someone in an argument or claim. In coaching, often we don’t give coaches the benefit of the doubt, even when their decision may be based on information we don’t have access to. Dan also talks about umpires and the best way to approach the good and bad calls they make. Lastly, does adding body weight mean you’ll throw with greater pitching velocity?
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Full Transcript – Dear Baseball Gods 89 – Principle of Charity; Approaching Umpires who Make Bad Calls & Does Mass = Gas?
You’re listening to the dear baseball gods podcast. I’m Dan Blewett. And on this show, you’ll learn advanced concepts in baseball. Explain simply I’m here to guide you on your baseball journey and help you paddle through. What’s now an ocean of misinformation, guru wisdom, an overly technical diamond babble.
Hey, welcome back. The dear baseball gods. I’m Dan Blewett in today’s episode, we’ve got three topics. We’re going to cover the first in more detail. That’s going to be today, the principle of charity and how we can apply that to coaching decisions and, uh, kind of reduce some of maybe the animosity and some of the conflicts that we find ourselves in as baseball parents.
Then we’re going to talk a little bit about. Blame and where we attribute good and bad luck and the umpires. And then lastly, we’re going to cover the question of the week, uh, which was sent in, um, by a former student of mine, Nick, who is now a division one baseball player. And he asked a little bit about how weight plays into pitching velocity.
So let’s get started with our main topic here today, the principle of charity. So if you’re not familiar with this, this is a philosophical, um, concept, which is basically just saying that, look, we need to interpret any, um, speakers statements in the most rational. And altruistic way possible. So this is saying like, Hey, if you read an email or you see me do something, not immediately assuming that I did that just to be a jerk, just to be just because I’m an idiot.
Um, the principle of charity says, look, give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that he was doing it for the right reasons. Assume. That he meant the most intelligent thing possible when he, he did that. Um, and just assume the best before being proven otherwise. And I think, especially in our cancel culture in our Twitter culture, we certainly do not apply the principle of charity enough.
And I’ll give you an example. Um, and I’m sure every one of you out there listening has an example of this, where maybe you jumped the gun. Or a parent jumped the gun and assume the worst without maybe having all of the information. And so, um, I don’t remember the exact details of the example, but basically, um, one year I was a head coach on my teams and I pulled a player out from like second base or somewhere in the infield and maybe like the fifth inning.
And I swapped in a lesser, you know, one of our backup players and. The parent after the game was pissed about this decision, because like, why are they, why are they putting him in, why are they putting that kid in at this point in the game? This makes no sense. This is stupid. They shouldn’t taken my son out.
Why are they putting that kid in? Well, the reason I took that starter out and the reason I put the lesser kid in was because I needed the starter to be my sort of emergency. I might need to go to you pitching kid, and I didn’t want to pull them in from the field. So this was a classic example of. You don’t know why I did what I did, but what I did made a lot of sense.
And if you had maybe taken the time, obviously me speaking hypothetically to this parent in the past, if you’d taken the time to maybe consider, you know what, Dan probably did that for a good reason. I don’t know the reason, but I’m gonna assume that there was a really good reason for it and that he wasn’t doing it just to screw my kid over, just to take away playing time or just to allocate, playing time to acute him.
Maybe didn’t deserve it or just, you know, it was lower on the depth chart. But I think we do that a lot as parents having very incomplete information. And one of the challenges that I want you all to be. Uh, constantly remembering with, with coaches also with umpires is that they are always trying their best.
There are certainly times where coaches are trying to get their own kid, you know, more playing timer. They play some favorites that does certainly happen. But I think we also need to err, on the side of assuming that that’s not happening until really proven. Otherwise this again, just goes back to the principle of charity.
You can interpret. Lots of different things, a lot of different ways. And I think it’s always best to err on the side of saying, you know what, I’m going to assume that they meant well and that they had more facts that I maybe don’t understand. Cause I’m just not there. I’m not privy to that information.
And I’m just going to take the high road and give them, you know, apply the principle of charity here and say that. All right. I don’t know. I don’t have all the facts, so let’s assume the best. And until I can clear the supper or ask and. One of the things with today’s version of baseball is parents are more involved, um, often to a detriment than ever before.
And so that barrier of it, there is no barrier between parents and coaches and players that were, you know, it can be a text after a weekend. Hey, why didn’t my son get an innings this weekend? Why? And he catch why’d you only catch one game instead of three games. You know, there’s not much of a barrier in amateur baseball.
And so with that, um, coaches try to be more transparent and explain moves more than ever. I think, I think they’re trying and aware that this is a need. I know this is something that I tried and our coaches were always encouraged to look. Try to be as transparent as you can, let kids know what their role is, let them know what you expect from them in a given weekend, help them understand the roadmap of the weekend, like where you’re going to start, where you’re not, you know, so they understand like, yeah, this is my game to sit, but I’m going to play next game.
Right. Rather than just being in the dark. Hey, I’m sitting this game. I don’t know if I’m going to play the whole weekend. Right. So coaches, I think are, are probably being better at this than ever because there’s a clear need for it. But at the same time, coaches don’t have time to explain everything that they do.
Like in that one situation, there’s no way I’m gonna like, go tell the parents, Hey, this is why I’m pulling your kid out. They don’t need to know. They just don’t, uh, if they’re pissed about it. So be it like, I don’t care, but. It doesn’t need to cause a conflict later on when maybe their son who I did explain, Hey, I’m taking you out cause I need to pitch, or I might need you to pitch their son might be aware of this and might explain later and then diffuse a situation where, you know, it gets in the car and parents like, Aw man, your coach, what was he doing?
Like that didn’t make any sense. Why did he take you out? W O B took me out because of this. Oh, Oh, I get it. Yeah, that makes sense. So again, this is just always err, on the side of assuming the best of assuming there was an intelligent reason until proven otherwise. And a lot of times your kids are going to come home and say, Oh yeah, coach did this because of this.
And they’re like, Oh, that makes sense now. Right? Oh yeah. Coach Lino left me out there a little longer because he had to do this and he really needed me to get through the, in him. Cause we did this, then this pitcher didn’t have to pitch. Then this happens, then this hat there’s, there’s a lot of. There’s a lot of, uh, forward-thinking required to get through a game and especially a long weekend of tournament plays.
So I just urge you if you’re out there listening, apply the principle of charity. Not just on the baseball field, but just everywhere you can. Don’t assume people are, are being malicious on Twitter. Don’t assume that email that maybe had some weird wording that they’re trying to be a jerk or trying to marginalize.
You always assume the best and try to assume that you don’t need to take offense unless proven otherwise.
Alright for our 92nd mindset today, we’re going to cover umpires. And this is what I want. This is for anyone, for parents, for players, for kids. The big thing I wanted to impress upon you is please do not explain a way wins and losses that games, any of that stuff because of umpires. The thing with empires is, and you have to, you have to look at baseball specially with its long seasons, with its many innings, uh, with its variable field conditions, right?
Like in basketball field conditions are not a thing, right? There’s always just a hardwood floor. And a pretty standard size rim, right? It’s like you’re playing in the rain or in the heat, in the heats or in the sleet, the snow, you know, in baseball, it’s incredibly variable. What your conditions are. And I want you to assume that the umpires are essentially no different than a bad mound or a Rocky dirty infield or a thunderstorm while you’re pitching, um, whatever, you know, a short porch and right field, all these things affect the game and the umpires are essentially a part of the field.
So I’d like you to assume that when empires make a bad call, That’s no different than a, than of a ground ball, hitting a rock and bouncing over your shortstop’s head for a single, you know, these are parts of the game that when you look at the game from an in your season and your career over a long period of time, They even out, you’re not just gonna like somehow get screwed on every call or get screwed on 80% of calls during a given season.
That’s just not going to work out that way. You’re going to get calls that go towards you. You’re going to get calls that go against you. Sometimes they’re going to be very poorly timed and maybe cost you a game. But the thing is, even when they cost you a game, you need to look deeper in yourself and say, okay, yeah, he took away an hour.
He took away a strike. It changed that inning. You know, we could have scored two runs, but. We also had some pretty unfocused bats in the third inning and left a couple of runners on then, you know, that was on us. So if we had done our job earlier, then we don’t let the empire change the game. That those, that bad call doesn’t matter if we do our job earlier.
And that’s always the way to, to. Approach life, not just baseball, but life there’s this distinct. Everyone knows them. They’re every baseball, clubhouses is the same thing. There’s the guy who says, Oh yeah, I mean, I got screwed. That’s why the, the red Sox released me or the Rockies released me. I didn’t get promoted because of politics because I got screwed this and that, blah, blah, blah.
There’s always people that assume that everyone else is out to get them. And then there’s other people that say, you know what? This stuff is just prevalent in everyday life. The good luck, the bad luck, the politics they do exist sometimes. Um, but if you don’t like it just play better, right? You don’t like getting screwed by the empire, squeezing you in the seventh inning.
Play better in the first through sixth innings. Right? Make better on the chances that you do have. Don’t let it come down to chance. And I think that’s the big message. So when you’re a parent, don’t let your kids get in the car and complain about the empires. And as a parent, don’t complain about the empires to your kids.
Don’t let them start to say my success is dictated by external factors. The best thing you can do is help kids understand that they’re in control of their destiny, even when they’re not, because their way of explaining away the good and the bad is going to help them be more determined in the future and make better progress to improving.
The things that hold them back.
Alright. Now it’s time for our listener Q and a portion of the show questions from the pious pious means to be devoutly faithful. And if you’re devout to the game of baseball, then you’re exactly the kind of person I want to hear from. If you have a question you’d like answered on the show, please email a voice recording to hello@danblewett.com.
All right. And our question of the day was submitted by Nick. Hi Dan, this is Nick from Illinois. I would love to hear what you believe to be the ideal body weight for a pitcher. This mass really equal gas. All right. Thanks for the question, Nick. Hope you’re doing well back there in Illinois. So yes. Does body mass equal throwing gas?
Right? Mass equals gas. It’s one of those dorky sayings, uh, in general it does so pretty much everyone when they’re younger and smaller, they throw slower. If you take any, and this is where it goes back to my sort of doppelganger test. Your doppelganger is a German word. It means double goer. It’s a, it means you in an alternate universe, essentially.
So there, if there was a twin version of you, um, what would they be like in an alternative universe? So you can use this as a comparison for lots of different attributes where you’re asking yourself, if I did this, would I be that? So if you imagine yourself, you’re six foot, one 75, and you throw 84 miles per hour.
If you’re a six foot, one 85 and you added 10 good pounds of muscle. Do you throw harder than the, than the six foot, one 75 kid? I mean, probably right. Like who would bet against that? If your mechanics are the same, everything’s constant, you didn’t get less flexible when you add your and your muscle mass than your body’s just going to have more force behind the ball.
Cause your body works as a chain. It works as a sequence. It works as a unit. And so stronger legs and a stronger back and stronger shoulders and stronger forums, all that stuff. How would 10 pounds of extra muscle not help you throw harder? And when you started to see some of these pro guys and how darn big they are, um, it becomes clear why guys who are six foot four, tend to throw the ball really hard, especially when they’re filled out.
And they’ve got some strength. Um, It’s just as a whole players that are bigger and stronger, and that means taller with longer arms. And also just more muscular. They’re gonna throw harder than kids who were smaller and shorter and less muscular. I think that’s very clear. So obviously there’s a point where everyone gets to where that stops being the case.
Like if you’re a, so like for me, I’m six foot, 200, my playing weight in my last three seasons was six foot, 200. If I get a six foot, two 10. I wasn’t probably gonna throw much harder maybe a little bit. If I was six to six foot, two 20, I don’t know why I keep saying my height is if that’s going to change.
But if I was 220 pounds, am I gonna throw harder than being at two 10? Probably not. So for me, once I was like pretty much filled up. Like I had all the muscle mass, my body needed. To throw a ball optimally, then it’s like, okay, I’m pretty much maxed out. Like I don’t need to put more weight, but you know, for me as a college freshman, I was 170 pounds.
So there was a big 30 pound gap of me getting to my hardest velocity. And that took me from low eighties to low to mid nineties. So I think for everyone, the question is can I continue to pack on a lot of weight and the answer for almost everyone, unless you’re a college junior is yes. That you can continue to put on a lot of weight and.
Even if you’re a big, strong, high schooler, there’s like a second puberty that everyone seems to hit when they go to college. And you add on that second freshman, 15, 20, and it’s not just dining hall and beer. It’s like you’re in the weight room. If you’re a college athlete, a lot on a very structured program with other guys who are bigger and stronger than you pushing you, it’s a very, it’s an and with the dining hall and I guess some of the beer.
That’s just giving you a lot of calories to, for the first time, really build yourself up because as a high schooler, it’s hard to eat enough calories when you’re getting out of bed at six in the morning and you’re tired and you’re rolling into school and then you can’t eat in class or you get in trouble and you’ve got a pack.
Like how are you going to pack 5,000 calories? You know, it’s a really good. The calorie density that you need to really grow as you’re killing it in the weight room, you know, then you go to baseball practice, you’re on the heat for three hours and you have basketball practice all winter. There’s this, it seems like it’s really hard to get, um, on the positive side of calories as a high schooler.
Cause again, If mom and dad, aren’t working really hard to pack your lunches, like really significant lunches, plus a ton of afterschool food. Uh, it’s hard. It’s just really tough and you’re very, very active. You’re running around with school, friends and activities in college. You’re doing one thing. Right.
You’re playing baseball and you’re going to, and you’re going to class. Well, that’s two things, but beyond that dining hall food, there’s, it’s plentiful. You can sit down there and just crush food for a while. You know, you steal some bagels, you hopefully get fed at the field. You get hopefully like another stipend for food.
There’s a lot of ways to get tons of calories and you’re going to get on a pretty good rigorous weight lifting program. So, um, pretty much everyone. If you want to throw harder, you need to commit yourself in the longterm to being as. Muscular as you can possibly be for your frame size and you’ll know it when you hit it again.
Like when I was one 85, I was really muscular. I had like six pack abs. I was carrying a lot of muscle and very little body fat. Um, but even then one 85, like wasn’t big enough for me when I got to like one 90, one 95. That’s when I really like hit my, essentially my set point. And then I like slowly climb towards 200 I’m at a slightly fatter body weight.
Um, but for me like that one 90 to 200 pound range was for me being like an optimal pitcher. Like that was me getting as much out of my body as I could. And I was a strong, formidable looking athlete at that point, a grown man. Right. So everyone wants to get to that point. So great question, Nick. I appreciate it.
So takeaway here is keep packing on weight until you’re very, very sure. They are pretty much filled out that you’re a big strong dude and you’re tapping into every mile per hour that your body can produce. Well, that’s it for today’s episode of dear baseball gods. If you enjoy the show and would like to support me while improving your baseball IQ.
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