The unsung heroes of baseball

There's plenty of moments in baseball where someone always gets the spotlight.

Luis Gonzalez in game 7 of the 2001 World Series.

Kirk Gibson in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series.

Four homerun games by Shawn Green (2002), Mike Cameron (2002), Carlos Delgado (2003) and Josh Hamilton (2012)

Derek Jeter's jump-and-throw on October 6, 1998 from a ground ball by Travis Fryman

There are plenty of other moments that one person gets the fame for the day.

But there are certain players that never get credit for the job they do every day, and those guys are the catchers.

Although I been an infielder all throughout college, I did catch two innings of junior college ball in California when I played for Barstow Community College and I'll tell you what, I didn't realize there is a lot of things going on at once when you are behind the plate.

This was brought to my attention a couple of days ago when pitcher Homer Bailey of the Cincinnati Reds threw his second no-hitter against the San Francisco Giants.

All we see is the pitchers interview during the post game show or his voice on a radio-interview. They get most of the credit because they do the heavy lifting of throwing the ball. But 99.9 percent of the pitchers also give credit to their battery mate, though it's almost like they're just giving a small shout out.

Having three close friends that have caught behind the plate in college (and professionally), I can probably speak for them that it's both the pitcher and the catcher that threw the no-hitter or the perfect game.

Just imagine...the pitch calls, talking to the pitcher when he's struggling with something, talking to umpire to have a friendly strike zone, frame the pitches, all the drop third strikes being blocked, or even just a block if a runner got on base from a walk.

All those pitchers that have thrown no-hitter or perfect games, from the starters to John Wholestaff, they couldn't have done it with their catchers.

I have tons of respect for catchers. In every situation, especially that bad one, they have to keep their poise or the team starts to crumble.

I believe in baseball, the pitcher can't be the heart and soul of the team, but both the pitcher and catcher has are combined to be the heart and soul.

But that's just my opinion.

So for all the catchers out there, who's on the daily grind of making pitchers better for perfection.

Thank you.

-Jun