Pirates? At Mizzou?

The Missouri Tiger baseball team is having some fun, and the class-clowns seem to be the Tigers bullpen. Recently relief pitcher Travis Wendte bought a pirate flag - featuring a skull and a couple of swords - and has been flying the flag over the Tiger bullpen. They are calling themselves "The Legion of Doom," and the key contributors are Wendte, Taylor Parker and David Cales. The reason behind this is geared toward motivating the Tiger bullpen to have a "light-out" approach to their appearances in games. Basically, they want the other team to feel like the game is over when they step on the field. It's a chance to have a little fun, and maybe show a little intimidation.

In baseball relief pitchers thrive on the intimidation factor. While many starting pitchers succeed with pitches that have less speed, and are more based on pinpoint control, successful relief pitchers always seem to be guys who have filthy "stuff" (meaning the break or speed of a pitcher's pitches). All you need to do is look at guys who come in to the games in the 7th, 8th or 9th innings, guys like: Francisco Rodriguez and Scott Shields of the Los Angeles Angels, Billy Wagner of the New York Mets, Mariano Rivera of the New York Yankees, Joe Nathan of the Minnesota Twins, Brad Lidge and Dan Wheeler of the Houston Astros, Huston Street of the Oakland A's, B.J. Ryan of the Toronto Blue Jays, Chris Ray of the Baltimore Orioles, Jon Papelbon of the Boston Red Sox, and Bobby Jenks of the Chicago White Sox. The list goes on and on. Intimidation is key to bullpen success. Many closers these days enter to theme songs, that may or may not strike fear into a batter. Rivera comes out to Metallica's "Enter Sandman," in which the lyrics go "Enter night, exit light...", Billy Wagner comes out to the same song. Trevor Hoffman of the San Diego Padres enters to AC/DC's "Hell's Bells" and they even turn out the lights in San Diego's PETCO Park for his entrance. All in all, theatrics have become a big part of relief pitching in baseball, and I think it is a good thing. I think that it adds a lot of fun to the game, and makes watching the closing innings of a game much more enjoyable.

What I am waiting for, though, is for a closer to go out on a limb. It would have to be one of the top closers in the game, but I think it would be great if they entered to the same song that WWE chairman Vince McMahon enters to. I don't know the artist or the name of the song, but the lyrics go "You got...no chance....no chance in hell." That would be great.

Publish Date: April 14 in the Missourian. Front page of the sports section.