410 Forum — Sports
The Pen Is Mightier Than The Bat
By Jesse Venn
the head coach of a collegiate baseball team usually has a ton of stuff on his mind. He has to worry about the oppositions pitching, their batting and their defense. So why is the head coach of the Bears starring at a handful of writing pens?
The baseball game starts at 2:30, but UNC head coach Kevin Smallcomb is at the field five hours before the first pitch. There is so much for a coach to do on game day besides actually coaching the game. The head coach is personally working on the ballpark. This work includes raking the base paths, putting the bases in place, setting up the batting cages and the pitching guards for pre-game warm-ups. All of this work is done by Smallcomb and the assistant coaches, so when his players arrive at the field there is nothing to do but get ready to play a baseball game.
Now that the sports ground is ready for the players to take the field, the coach is able to relax and do nothing but set the line-up, give some coaching advice or talk strategy with his assistant coaches, but around noon Smallcomb is in his office preparing for games that are weeks ahead.
“I have already done the preparations for today’s game,” Smallcomb said. “I’m thinking about the travel for our next games. Making sure our hotels are good and making sure we are going to eat right. I have to get the itinerary together for our next trip. I am more focused on that stuff because we are going to take care of business today. I have to be focused one or two weeks ahead.”
People who have chosen to make competition their occupation are the kind of people who take a game such as baseball very seriously. We have all seen this in person or on TV. We have all seen that coach, player, fan or parent who gets so serious and makes a game so crucial that it makes it un-enjoyable.
Smallcomb is not one of these people.
“Game day is fun,” Smallcomb said. “That’s what you are here to do, to get to game day. That’s why the players lift weights, practice hard and go to class, and that’s why I do everything that I do, so that we can play the games. It’s intense, but it’s fun.”
His players and coaches say that Smallcomb is very passionate when it comes to winning games. “Practice is practice, but then comes game day I wouldn’t say that his demeanor changes, but he does get more intense,” senior first baseman Kevin Sandberg said. “I just know that he wants to win.”
Coaches and players in any sport are kind of a different breed, especially members of a baseball team. Superstitions and baseball have a history that goes back to the beginning of the sport. Not even a mature man in charge of 34 young players is immune to this bug.
When a person is standing in the dugout, looking at a handful of writing pens for five minutes, one can’t help but ask, “What are you doing, Coach?”
“I’m superstitious about my pens,” Smallcomb said. “You always write in black, never in red. A good pen wins. You write a line-up with a certain pen and you stay with that pen and you know that it’s a good pen if you play well. It’s not necessarily the outcome; it’s if you play well.”
What happens to a bad pen? “It usually hits the dugout wall,” pitching coach Wes Sells said. “Because that means that you are not playing very well.”
Smallcomb's Game Day Schedule
• 10 a.m.- Arrive at the ballpark/unlock facilities
• 10:30 a.m.- Start setting up the field
• 11:30 a.m.- Players start to arrive
• 12 p.m.- Office work
• 1:30 p.m.- Choose writing pen
• 2 p.m.- Set line-up/last minute coaching advice
• 2:30 p.m.- Game time
• 4:30 p.m.- (after game) Tear down/go home
