Simply Put - The Stocking Question?

By: Clint Cox

By my account, I have written at least 80 "Simply Put" columns. None have made a difference in which direction the sun comes up, but a few have at least struck a nerve with some folks. This week’s column may be right up there with questions such as What is the meaning of Life? or Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

The burning question that I have been asking myself for a couple of weeks now is what makes some baseball players wear their pant legs at the knee, thus showing their stockings, and what makes other players wear their pant legs all the way down to their ankles? If you’ve been to a baseball game at the high school, college or professional level, surely this question has come to your mind as it has to mine.

There must be some deep psychological reason that players make one of these two choices. I’ve asked some of the high school players and they saw it as just a personal preference. That’s too simple, there must be more to it than just that.

I’ve ask a few of my friends that have spent many years and a lot of money getting degrees that allow them to make in depth analysis of some of life’s more perplexing behavior. They speak a language that I call "Psycho-babble" so as to either dazzle us with brilliance or baffle us with, well you know the rest of the line.

But none of my "psycho-babble" friends could come up with any deep meaning explanation of why a player makes a specific choice about whether to display their stockings or cover them up. Surely this decision making fits into some type of profiling analysis that is laid out in one of their "psycho-babble" books. But they claim not.

So, without the aid of any well educated and or well paid behavior analyst, I was forced to come up with my own theory. Simply Put, I’ll call it the lunch pail theory. The guys that wear their pants legs up to their knees like the look of stockings on a baseball uniform. It adds a little more flash or pizzazz to the uniform. They are the guys that would make sure to have a nice shiny lunch pail in which to tote their lunch to work.

The guys that wear their pants legs all the way down to the ankles aren’t too worried about how they look. They are not into flashy uniforms, they just want to go out and do their jobs. They are the guys that will tote the same lunch box to work for years, regardless of how many dents it has or how it looks.

So how would you wear your pants legs on a baseball uniform? Send me an e-mail or blog me on the webpage. And if you have any other theories about this burning question of the utmost importance include that in your e-mail or blog.
From the front porch: Coach said never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game.