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There are two sides to every baseball argument. One is everything that happens on the infield—where the scuffle starts and the dugouts quickly go astray. And the other is the trip through the outfield, long and traditionally futile, in which the relievers dutifully cover hundreds of feet from the bullpens just to get a glimpse of the action.
“When we got there, it was all destroyed,” said David Bednar, a Pirates rescue worker. “And just walk. Everyone is out of breath, and everyone needs oxygen.”
When the benches are cleared and the flight begins, it’s time for those in the bullpens to sprint.
They realize from the start that all their effort is probably for nothing: They often run this far only to turn around on the way back. While all of his teammates are fighting or trying to stop each other from fighting, the relievers are getting caught all over the field. (On the rare occasion they find that the fight is still going on once they arrive – they have bigger problems to worry about.) They realize that their run is probably futile. They know it’s a lot of ground to cover and, frankly, sometimes you’d rather not just do it. But it’s an important part of the process – complete with its own politics and a lot of room for idiosyncrasy – and the relievers agree: It’s a journey they have to make.
“Oh, you have to sprint to be there for your guys,” says Jordan Romano, a Blue Jays reliever. “If you walk or jog, it’s not a good look. You have to sprint at full speed.”
That comes with some risks.
“You sit for a while, and then you have that full sprint,” laughs Romano. “So you’re worried about your hammies – just hope one doesn’t blow.”
If a baseball team is a brotherhood, the bullpen can sometimes feel a bit like a set of brothers. Relievers are physically distant from their teammates in the dugout and bound by another set of routines. But a bank of policemen can be an opportunity to show their commitment to the larger group: They know that they are far, and they know that they will probably be too late, but they still have the journey, the distance (and barriers) be damned
“I keep getting yelled at for jumping the fence,” sighs White Sox reliever Liam Hendriks, noting that he last did it during Chicago’s shutout of Minnesota earlier this month. “It was a lot lower than I thought.” (A nice way to show competitive spirit, perhaps, but not exactly the best technique from a safety perspective.) But his goal every time is to be the first reliever, and sometimes, that means jumping the fence rather than waiting. for someone to open the gate. He’ll take any advantage he can get: At 33, he knows he’s not as fast as some of his younger teammates. But that hasn’t diminished his desire to stand out as the fastest relief pitcher in any scuffle — and he has a good source of inspiration.
With the Blue Jays in 2015, Hendriks was teammates with LaTroy Hawkins, then 42 years old and in the final season of his career. His first bench landing was memorable. “He was running and yelling at everyone else, like, ‘You can’t let a 42-year-old man beat you,’ and then he started kicking our asses in a rage,” Hendriks recalls. Now try to do the same.
So he sprints as fast as he can for bragging rights. And for another reason, too: If he makes a great racing show, then, in case the fight is still going on when he arrives, no one will notice that he is not really equipped to participate.
“I can’t fight anything,” explains Hendriks. “So I like the aspect of me having that animosity… But the fact that I can’t fight it is a dead giveaway that it’s all an act, so if I can keep that facade going as long as I can, it’s probably better. “
For some, however, it doesn’t feel so much like a competition. It’s a show of solidarity – which means sure, you should run, but you don’t have to rush to be first.
“You can’t get out of there,” says Joe Mantiply of the Diamondbacks. “It’s just having the back of your teammates, and for me, it doesn’t take talent to be a good teammate… But I just go with the flow. Maybe in the middle of the pack. You have to make sure that don’t hurt yourself.”
It’s a walk. That means once the relievers start pitching, there’s plenty of time for their minds to turn to the inevitable return trip. Whatever adrenaline gets them out of the bullpen, if they see the scuffle starting to break when they’re only halfway through, well — it’s easy for the spark to wear off a bit as they start to consider the way to come back.
“It’s always a quick run at the beginning, but you just realize, you’re going to be out of breath and you’re going to get there pretty quickly,” says Clay Holmes of the Yankees.
It is valid even if they come out with the purest of motivations – not to come to blows, not to show their speed, but to break everything.
“You don’t want to fight,” Orioles reliever Jorge López said of what he thinks when he runs out. “You just want to manage the problem.”
But even this generally seems fruitless.
“I’ll never get there,” he says with a laugh.
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