Villains and Storylines in Baseball

Baseball tournaments are entertainment and theatre. Themes of each tournament play out before, during, and after the tournament. These tournaments oftentimes play out like a script of a movie.

Villain

Every tournament needs a villain. Sometimes these villains are made up in our head prior to playing. Other times it occurs naturally in a game when you play a team that whines, complains, yell things at the pitcher during his delivery, or exhibits other turd-like behavior.  It could be in the form of a team that says they are going to drop a 20-spot on you, then your team hands them a shocking drubbing like they have never experienced before (true story).  A villain could also come in the form of poor coaching, for example, a coach who brings 15 players and only bats 9 or brings in substitute players, while his players ride the pine. Remember, unfortunately the villain will win at times to make things more interesting. Either way the villain, like the Penguin in Batman, is vital to the script.

Storyline
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Every tournament needs a storyline. There should be a narrative in each tournament that motivates you to win. A few examples: You’re running on fumes with several injuries, yet dig deep to still win a tournament. Perhaps you feel you were purposely given a hard pool draw, but you overcame the sinister tournament director, to win it all.  Also, we all love the underdog stories. An Unranked team beats a highly ranked team. A team of country boys beats city boys. Whatever it may be, the underdog story goes a long way in making the story of each tournament. 

Remember, if we didn’t have these oftentimes made-up illusions that someone is out to get us, think of how boring the game would be. Some of these things might be seen as bad for the game by most baseball purists; however, it certainly makes for more interesting theater in the arena.