A lot of people think hockey goalies are a little bit crazy.

Why would anyone want to stand there and wait for pucks traveling nearly 100 miles per hour to come right at them?

Baseball catchers are a little bit crazier.

They’re not even standing. They’re squatting. And they don’t have to wait for a fast-moving small object to come at them. When a catcher is on the field, he gets a baseball flung in his direction on every play.

Sometimes he has to do everything he can to block a ball that bounces in front of him. Other times, he has to wear a bruise courtesy of a foul ball that clipped him on an exposed part of his body.

All the time, a catcher is pretty sore and tired once the game is over.

That’s why I have so much respect for that position — and admiration for those who play it well.

Already this high school season, I’ve come across two outstanding catchers in Butler’s Justin Stewart and Knoch’s Dylan Swarmer.

Stewart did something in a game against Mt. Lebanon a week ago that I have never seen a catcher do in my 50 years of following baseball: Throw out three runners attempting to steal in one inning.

Swarmer picked a runner off second base and threw out a runner trying to steal third in the same inning last Wednesday, helping set up a 2-1 win over Highlands.

A former high school catcher, Vincentian graduate and Mars resident Phil Madonna, has been nominated for the highest award a collegiate catcher can receive — the Johnny Bench Award.

That award goes to the top Division I catcher in the country. Madonna — a junior at Siena — is one of 85 catchers nationally to be nominated to receive it.

He stands only 5-foot-7 and weighs 170 pounds. Yet he’s played in 21 of the Saints’ first 23 games this spring, starting 17 of them. Madonna is hitting .271 with a homer and 10 RBI.

His coach, Tony Rossi, could care less about his offensive numbers.

“That’s just gravy,” Rossi said. “Any coach needs defense and leadership out of his catcher and that’s what Phil gives us.

“He’s a captain and he’s only a junior. He’s a wall back there. Nothing gets past him. He’s got an excellent arm and he’s great with our pitchers. That’s what a catcher is all about. He’s as good as any I’ve had here.”

That’s saying something. Rossi is in his 48th year at Siena and is the longest active tenured coach in all of college baseball. Rossi has compiled 849 wins and has sent 36 players on to professional baseball.

Madonna hit .300 as a sophomore last year. He has thrown out 21 runners trying to steal in the past two seasons. He was WPIAL Class A Player of the Year his senior year at Vincentian.

The semifinalists for the Bench Award will be determined May 17. The three finalists will be announced June 5.

Regardless of those outcomes, Phil Madonna’s name has been associated with Johnny Bench.

That’s not bad.

John Enrietto is sports editor of the Butler Eagle