The one that bugs me a great deal is when announcers will fall over themselves in praise of a catcher who blocks an errant pitch before it gets behind him. The vast majority of the time, it appears to me to be just a matter of luck. The ball didn't bounce that far away, or it took just the right angle so that it hits the catcher. How much time is elapsing between the ball hitting the dirt in front of the plate and the ball passing the plate to the left or right? i.e., how long does it take a ball to travel the three critical feet before it is either blocked or is past the catcher? Can any human being possibly react to position himself correctly in the .00001 seconds available to him? You can only lunge in a general direction and hope that the ball's bounce takes it in the direction you chose.
I notice that when a ball does get by a catcher, the announcers will never go into any harsh criticism of how bad the particular catcher is at blocking such errant pitches, they treat it as..."That's the way the ball bounces."
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