Theyre not that bad
Theyre not that good
But all in all
Its understood
We wanna dance
They wanna play
We wouldnt have it any other way
The Cheap Seats – Alabama
Released in possibly the worst year to release a baseball-themed song, The Cheap Seats dropped from Alabama onto radio airwaves in April 1994. It would reach No. 13 in the country charts by mid-summer, but by then, baseball was getting a negative view due to the stalemate in negotiations between owners and the Major League Baseball Players Association that would eventually result in a combination of a players strike and an owners lockout that ended the season in August of 1994 and also cost the first 18 games of the 1995 season.
The video for The Cheap Seats uses actual minor league baseball players at the time, staging a game between the Chattanooga Lookouts and the Carolina Mudcats, both of whom were part of the Double-A Southern League at the time. The lyrics to the tune have been criticized by some who say Alabama portrayed minor league fans as disinterested in the actual game on the field and more there for the entertainment value on the side than the actual game.
Of course, that criticism hasnt reached minor league ballparks, who seem to have The Cheap Seats pop up multiple times during the course of a nine-inning game over the stadium speakers.
Winter sports are done.
Well, okay, theyre finishing up. The boys basketball tournaments finish off the high school winter sports seasons this weekend. Next weekend is the state AAU wrestling championships, wrapping up one of the winter club sports – at the same time, the Huron Tigers nine are scheduled to play in a baseball tournament in Rapid City. Many of the Tigers players will be playing in the state basketball tournament this weekend and immediately trading in their basketball shoes for baseball cleats.
Sometimes, the continuity of seasons can become overwhelming. When I was in high school, baseball wasnt an option in the spring, but talking with friends from other schools, transitioning from playing in the state tournament in basketball to right away having a track meet the next week was fairly normal.
In the winter, its not unusual at all for the state volleyball championships to happen on a weekend and the first girls basketball practice of the year to take place the next week and girls who go from volleyball to gymnastics are often in a competition within 10 days of the end of the state volleyball tourney.
Is that quick transition good? Bad? Neither?
According to a study from the National Institutes of Health, it can be both. A 2021 NIH study showed that transitioning from one sport to another sport can lead to increase injury if there is not adequate cool down and warm up time from one sport to the other.
A quick and dirty summation of the study would be that we use our bodies in different ways for different sports. Expecting to go 100% for one sport, then turn around and go 100% in a second sport without taking time to build up the body for the demands of the second sport can lead to more frequent and more serious injury occurrences.
In that, its an excellent training for life.
Psychological studies have shown that less than 0.5% of the population can truly multi-task in their brain – that is, give more than one task equal importance and consideration at the same time.
Some will push back against that and swear that they have the ability to multi-task, but do you really? Or are you simply handling life like tabs in a browser window with your multiple activities? Sure, the tabs are all open, but you cannot be addressing content in two tabs at the same time equally this is coming from someone who notoriously has 10+ tabs open at a time, so I get the struggle!
Our brains and our bodies are made to transition, not to do two unrelated or even tangentially related tasks simultaneously.
While I can hold interest and fandom in two different sports at the same time, Im glad that arguably our busiest sports coverage time of the year at the paper – winter sports – occurs when my biggest personal love, baseball, is in the offseason.
The first home runs of the 2025 Major League Baseball season left the Tokyo Dome this past week in games between the Chicago Cubs and Los Angeles Dodgers. This coming Thursday, the rest of baseball joins in. My Braves will travel to face the San Diego Padres while the Twins will square off with former staff ace Sonny Gray in St. Louis.
So, while the fun of the hardwood may be over for another season, put on your caps and pull up some bleacher to enjoy the crack of the bat, the pop of the mitt, and the call of the umpire.
Play ball!
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