Mental Side of Baseball

So the first hump has been climbed. Its been the longest amount of time since my last post, but the blog is alive. I've been putting together some thoughts trying to make this one remotely half decent. I figure the mental side of baseball is something good to talk about- we've all heard the expressions.

"A baseball game is simply a nervous breakdown divided into nine innings."
- Earl Wilson

"Baseball is 90% mental -- the other half is physical."

-Yogi Berra

Anyone familiar with the moneyball story knows how Billy Beane was so exceptionally talented in every tool of the game, but was never able to have a consistent season in the show. This is credited to lack of being mentally able to play the game. He got to frustrated on the short-term immediate happenings of a game. I always wondered what would happen to baseball (or all sports) if the mental side of the game were to be neutralized.

I'm assuming if that were to happen, there would really be no edges. If a pitcher had the ability to paint the corner with blazing 96mph gas, he would, and it wouldn't depend on whether he's checking out the chick in the third row. Batters would be able to fully concentrate on the ball, allowing their superhuman hand-eye coordination to take over and simply mash, day in and day out.

Would you have .500 hitters? Maybe a modern day 400 game winner. I'm not really sure how to even know. But the Wall Street Journal computes statistics for which team has a better chance of winning. Surely this does take into account a throwing yips, like one of Chuck Knoblauch. But, there would, of course, be that bit of luck that comes in baseball- I doubt that will ever pass.

There will always be "a gork, a groundball, you get a groundball with eyes, you get a dying quail" (Quote from Crash Davis of Bull Durham, explaining one extra of those a week for .250 hitter, and you're in the hall of fame.) and, of course, a duck fart. Those things are a part of the game. A pitcher makes his best pitch, shatters the batter's bat, but it ducks in for a base knock to win the game. Or lose it. He hangs a 3-2 curve and the batter hits a rope, right at the center fielder. Its all part of the greatest game on Earth.

And, I guess while everyone tries to figure out that mental edge, whether it comes through visualization or confidence, sometimes, it just won't go your way.