Canisius College senior Alex Tufts will be keeping a blog throughout the 2012 season. Updates will appear on GoGriffs.com weekly. More content can be found at the "official" web site for the Canisius College Baseball Blog.

An important task this past weekend for the Griffs in Cary, N.C. was establishing signs for the bullpen pitchers. Unlike hitters who must memorize a complex system of signals notifying them when to steal, bunt, hit and run, bunt for base hit, etc, only one type of sign is ever really conveyed to the bullpen: that is, which pitcher needs to warm up. The Griffs bullpen and Perry Silverman (assistant coach/bullpen advisor) have devised an unconventional set of signs in order to relay the message of which specific pitcher is being ordered to warm up. These signs are not the intricate touches and swipes coaches use with hitters, the bullpen signs tend to be full body movements (done by Perry) that highlight a unique characteristic about the pitcher being called on. Normally we use walky-talkies to communicate with the bullpen but in emergencies the bullpen signs definitely come in handy.   

For example, if Perry comes running out of the dugout vigorously scratching his face, the entire bullpen knows that Tim Seil is being summoned to the bullpen mound. The scratching of his face is a reference to Tim's superior and enviable beard-growing ability. If Perry starts running down with his hat tucked into his pants, it is clear that Nathan Linseman is being asked to get loose. Tucking the bill of his hat into his pants is an unmistakable idiosyncrasy of "Big Linse" and also very questionable baseball style. When Perry comes out of the dugout pretending to walk like an old man with a cane, the bullpen is being informed that freshman Eric "Gramps" Stolzenburg needs to get ready to pitch. Eric has earned the nickname Gramps with his normally tired demeanor and tendency to fall asleep in a chair after dinner on the road. Sorry Stolz, but your golf magazines and overly-sensitive skin may make this nickname stick for all four years.

The Griffs pitching staff certainly has some characters this year and has produced some pretty good chatter in the bullpen thus far. "Good chatter" usually entails astute and perceptive comments about the game. "Bad chatter" is mostly classified as any unintelligent questions or comments relating to the game or any other subject and can be grounds for ordered silence. Look forward to hearing about more antics from the Griffs bullpen as we travel to Duke University this weekend.

Big Dogs Gotta Eat,
Alex Tufts