Week 13 Prompt III

63. To see a world in a grain of sand. and a heaven in a wild flower, hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour. -William Blake

Most people think of dirt as either something to walk on, something to plant in, or something disgusting.

I think of it as something to slide on.

Baseball requires dirt. This is proven by the fact that even baseballs with entirely grass infields still have dirt at the bases. Different types of dirt can really affect the game. Hard packed dirt can make ground balls skip really hard. Even good dirt can have imperfections, once I was moving over to backhand a flat ground ball that had not bounced once, and it ricocheted off a rock and hit me in the face.

For sliding, dirt is huge. Dirt that is too rocky can injure the slider, even if they slide correctly to avoid scrapes. I have encountered dirt that is really bad sliding dirt. I tried a pop-up slide into second once and the dirt was so sticky, though not wet at all, that I ended up coming up couple feet short of the base.

It's hard to dive back into a base with sticky dirt as well.

More higher level fields have entirely grass infields except for the bases, eliminating the dirt aspect for the fielders. If the grass were perfectly flat, then it would probably assist the fielders in terms of fielding the ball, though the ball would bounce higher, and be faster, increasing the double play rate greatly.

I generally hold a disliking towards dirt, but baseball dirt is different. I see a world in baseball dirt.