Let's hear it for catchers

First off, a shoutout to Mr. Germain. He was my Little League coach and a good guy. There I was, 10 years old, playing 2B with a mitt too small, and talent even smaller. At least as a second baseman. He saw this pudgy kid and said, "I think you might work out as catcher."
So, I put on the "tools of ignorance", aka the chest protector, the mask, the outsized (and outdated) catcher's glove, (the kind that was circular with a pocket in the middle), the shin pads, and off I went behind the plate. Catching Gene Bentz, the hardest thrower in little league. Easy job. All I had to worry about were foul tips, of which there were many.

I hated being a catcher at first. Up and down on every pitch. Putting on the gear and taking it off every inning, often in 80+ degree heat. But after a few innings, something happened. I really got into it. I loved thinking with the pitcher and the batter. Playing chess, except it was on a baseball field. It's the most demanding position in baseball. In fact, it's the most demanding position in any sport I can think of. What position in any sport calls for so many different skills? As a catcher, you need to:

• Hit, preferably for power but at least for average (I did neither, although I did have an ability to make contact and use the entire field)
• Have a good arm. (That, I did)
• Make sure the fielders are position properly. (I was pretty good at that too, actually)
• "Working" the umpire so you get the close calls. This calls for diplomacy, debating skills, and a bit of chicanery, such as framing a borderline pitch as a strike by how you position your glove. (Irrelevant in Little League. The umpires have absolute power.) 
• And #1...work with the pitcher. That means calling the right pitches and knowing your pitcher. Is he laid back? Intense? Is he working too slowly? Too fast? (This was what I loved to do and what I did best, although Bentz was like Bob Gibson. Just let him pitch and don't even think of interrupting his rhythm.)
• Oh, and to do all these things while squatting down for half the game. If you catch 9 innings, you're probably catching around 120 pitches or so. So you're squatting/rising 120 times, perhaps 140 times a year if you're a starting catcher. How many people can do all this?

Football is too specialized a sport to have these requirements. In basketball and hockey, there just aren't that many things to do. It's score, play D, assist. In hoops, add rebounding. In hockey, add checking.
It's no surprise that there are more ex-catchers as managers than any other position. Catchers are psychologists. So perhaps it's no surprise that I'm going into the social work profession, looking to become a therapist. Maybe it all began on the Little League diamond. Which, by the way, wasn't a diamond. They didn't have foul lines nor fences. So it wasn't so much a baseball diamond. More like a baseball polygon of some kind. I remember one of the rare times I got hold of a pitch and jacked it down the left field line. Umpire called it foul. There was no way he could see it clearly. Hell, there weren't any chalk lines to work off of. But I saw that ball. And it was fair, I still say.
Not only that, we were officially in the minor leagues. We were the Cubs, with little "Cub-like" jerseys and caps, in Cub blue. If you made it to the next level, you got the whole uniform thing. Pants with stirrups, cleated shoes, and much cooler jerseys and caps.
I never made it to the Little League "majors". Tried a few times but got cut each time. My brother, on the other hand, was really good. Played 1B and could hit for serious power. He was a Cincinnati Red, as I recall. I was way jealous of his uni. Still, the pain of being cut lasted only a day or two. As long as I could catch and be such a central part of the game, I was OK with it. And as a chubby 10 year old, I found the perfect position. Slow as molasses? No problem. A little overweight? Put on those tools, baby. Considered brainy in school? Squat down behind home plate, my man.
Catchers today are chiseled. I don't think pudgy catchers could make it to the pros. Some catchers of note:
1: Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez, possibly the greatest all around catcher who ever played, wasn't pudgy.  He had the greatest arm of any catcher I've ever seen. And was a phenomenal clutch hitter.
2: The Braves have a catcher, Evan Gattis, who could be an NFL linebacker. Absolutely the most menacing looking catcher I've ever seen.
3: Craig Biggio, who played all of his 20 years with the Houston Astros, started at catcher but was moved to 2B to preserve his knees, as he was the only catcher who was jackrabbit fast. He'll be almost certainly going into the Hall of Fame next year, his first year of eligibility.
4: Jerry Grote played his glory years with my NY Mets, catching the 1969 staff of Tom Seaver, et al. Grote wasn't great offensively but he called a great game and had a great arm.
5: Johnny Bench, considered by most to be the greatest catcher of all time, redefined the position on both offense and defense.

Catchers: They rock.