Wednesday, August 27, 2003

Originally Published 5/06/03

THE BOTTOM LINE
Baseball, Try Your Hand


By Bobby

There is simply no sport quite as difficult, and humbling, as that of baseball.

I used to play baseball. Little League, that is. I was pretty good, too. And then the pitches started getting faster, and the hitters started getting stronger, and I was becoming more focused on other sports anyway, and that was that. And while the love for the sport remained, (after all, baseball is my favorite sport) I did not play competitively throughout high school and college.

I was, and still am, involved in softball leagues, and have fared fairly well. In the back of my mind, I had always figured I could hold my own on the baseball field if I was to get back into it. To test my theory, I went to the local batting cages to strut my stuff. I started on medium pitch to get ‘warmed up’, but the only thing that got a workout was the mat behind me, which was very busy catching the balls that were somehow getting past me. Leaving my ego behind, I stepped out of the cages so the 10-year old boy behind me could get his turn.

He didn’t need the mat.

I spend so much time watching players make it look so easy, that it clouds my own perception of what I can do. Whether I’m at a Lakewood BlueClaws game, or tuned in to my beloved Yankees, the players are so good it’s amazing. The majesty of the home run, the grace of the double play, the aggressiveness of blocking the plate, the break of the breaking ball. These men play the toughest game at its highest level, and the apparent ease with which they do it makes me think I should be doing the same.

It says a lot for a sport that when you succeed 30% of the time, you are considered a very good hitter. In my opinion, the single most difficult thing to do in sports is to hit a pitch thrown by a professional arm. And that’s just making contact! Ted Williams used to be able to see the seams of the ball on its way to the plate, and put it where he wanted to. In 1941, he was able to do just that 40% of the time, and it’s not crazy to think that no one will ever accomplish that feat again.

It’s not just hitting. Outfielders make catching fly balls look like child’s play, but if they’re unable to get the right jump on the ball the second it comes off the bat, an easy out turns into a pitcher’s nightmare. Infielders routinely gobble up ground balls, rock hard potential weapons threatening to leave the infield at 120 mph, and still not sure which way they want to bounce.

Baseball can be an obstacle course of psychological torment. Over the last several years, professional players have completely lost the ability to throw the ball over home plate (Rick Ankiel), reach first base on a throw from second (Chuck Knoblach), or even throw the ball back to the pitcher from the catcher’s position (Mackey Sasser). Getting hit with a pitch can hurt, cause serious injury, or even kill; it can also mentally destabilize a player’s ability to return to the batter’s box.

Any mistake made in the sport of baseball is accentuated by the vastness of the field, and the small island one occupies within it. There’s no hiding. Errors can be made in every facet of the game; from pitching, to fielding, to hitting, to base running, to backing up, to hitting cutoff men, and so on and so on. And the sport does not discriminate. Even the greatest of players have delved head first into prolonged slumps of unexplained mediocrity.

If professional sports had a degree of difficulty scale, baseball would be the highest standard. It is this reason why I admire, respect, and often envy those players who are able to consistently succeed at it.

Even if they’re only 10 years old.

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