GEORGE BRETT VS. MILT WILCOX

Hey, it’s Jon again, and I’ve got Episode 8 of The History of Charging the Mound for you. It’s about the 1980 mound-charging incident between George Brett and Milt Wilcox. Unfortunately, I don’t have any video footage of the fight, as it seems to have never been recorded. Despite this, I chose it as the subject of its own episode for two reasons.

Firstly, Brett and Wilcox provided me with plenty of opportunities to explore various tangents, which I thoroughly enjoy. Secondly, this incident offers valuable insight into one of the central questions that have driven this entire project: why do batters charge the mound?

I don’t intend this to come across as cheap heat or an attempt to slander the commenters on YouTube, who I believe deserve more credit than they often receive. However, I have noticed a resurgence of a particular type of Internet baseball enthusiast in those comments sections: the Steroids People. According to these individuals, every event can be attributed to steroid use.

Whether it’s a home run, an aggressive reaction, an injury, or even a shortened career, they seem to believe that steroids are the cause. While I acknowledge that PED use might play a secondary role in certain mound-charging situations, or even a significant role in specific, isolated instances, I firmly believe that suggesting steroids are the primary explanation for this behavior is a misunderstanding of what charging the mound truly entails.

In this episode, I believe George Brett exemplifies the complexity of this issue. Sometimes, a batter charges the mound out of pure fury, and sometimes they do so even when they don’t want to. Often, it’s not a choice they make, but rather a feeling they can’t escape.