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Baseball: Just shut up and play the game

Los Angeles Times staff writer Ben Bolch
By Ben Bolch
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I’ve never understood the mindless banter emanating from the dugout during baseball games.

I can’t decipher most of it and I’m not sure the hitter can either. It’s all just so annoying. In fact, if I was hitting I would turn around and tell my teammates to shut up. Chew sunflower seeds. Check your Blackberry. Get on Facebook. But please be quiet.

This is one baseball tradition I can do without.

--Ben Bolch

Varsity Times Insider
Ben Bolch

Ben Bolch has been a Los Angeles Times staff writer since 1999. He is serving his second stint as the UCLA beat writer, which seems fitting since he has covered almost every sports beat except hockey and horse racing. Bolch is also the author of the recently released book “100 Things UCLA Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die.” He previously covered UCLA basketball from 2010-11 before going on to cover the NBA and the Clippers for five years. He happily traded in gobs of hotel points and airline miles to return to cover UCLA basketball and football in the summer of 2016. Bolch was once selected by NBA TV’s “The Starters” as the “Worst of the Week” after questioning their celebrity journalism-style questions at an NBA All-Star game and considers it one of his finer moments.

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