Over the course of the last six months, since the push to build a baseball stadium in Shockoe Bottom came back into the picture, I have criticized the concept roundly. And, I have suggested that some of the supporters of the Shockoe Bottom Center that Highwood Properties has proposed don’t know much about baseball.
But most of the people that suggestion has been aimed at are folks I’ve never met. With the way the Internet works, with anonymous players in the mix, there’s no telling if some of them have seen a thousand games, or none.
Bryan Bostic has been the most visible of the pitchmen selling the Baseball in the Bottom concept. First with Richmond Baseball Initiative and now as the man leading the group calling itself Richmond Baseball Club, Bostic has been consistent in his insistence that he is a baseball guy and that the game will thrive if it moves to Shockoe Bottom.
Bostic has trotted out his passion for baseball at nearly every opportunity.Yet, at the Albert Hill Middle School presentation on Apr.22, he had a telling moment that didn’t do much to support his contention that he is a bona fide baseball expert.
Standing before his seated audience in the school’s auditorium, Bostic was in the midst of describing the inadequacies of The Diamond when he spoke of relief pitchers warming up. Bostic said the pitchers had to warm up in a place that was almost in the parking lot, or words to that effect.
The problem was the pitchman couldn’t remember/didn’t know the name of that place. Every baseball park has such an area, for relief pitchers to throw practice pitches to a catcher, although it’s proximity to the field of play differs with each facility.
Although nearly any Little Leaguer could tell you that area is always called the “bullpen,” no matter what city the baseball game is being played in, Bostic searched for the word. It was funny, and it drew some chuckles, when someone supplied the missing word for Bostic, in a slightly sarcastic tone — “bullpen!”
Bostic went on, trying to act as if his revealing faux pas meant nothing. Or, perhaps Bostic believed it meant nothing. Either way, after hearing his pitch in person twice, it looks to me as if Mr. Baseball might need to hand the ball over to a relief pitchman.
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