Many many people in this world could afford to this sing the Redemption Song. One of them being the Mets' ace, Johan Santana. While most of the time the Mets should be singing the song after blowing his games, today was on him. He pitched 3 innings, surrendering 9 runs, sending the Yankees well on their way to a 15-0 shellacking of the Mets.
It happens all the time. In every situation, in every scenario of life, someone's success is almost always another's failure. Thankfully, not everyone is succesful all the time, so it works the other way around as well. When not coming through, a real competitor only counts down the time until his next opportunity at redemption. Most hitters have just one night of sleep until the oppurtunity comes. Even a closer could have a short waiting period. But starters have it second to worst. It is 5 full days until their next start, and it's five days of everyone and their grandmother questioning the skills of the player.
The guys who have it worse, have to wait a full offseason. Some end the season giving up walk off home runs, eliminating their team from the playoffs. It takes a long time to recover from something like that. But part of the game is not being short sighted. Everyone has to know that eventually they will redeem themselves and in the short term it may seem like all is lost, nothing is gained by focusing on it. It is best to emancipate yourself from mental slavery; none but ourselves can free our mind. One must focus on what to do to improve their skills, to avoid repeating the failure.
Take a look at Big Papi. He's been struggling for a long time now, and everyone is practically writing him off. But I firmly believe he will be back on top and be hitting 3rd in Boston's meaty lineup. (As a Yankee fan, I hate to admit it, but it's true.) It might happen because David will figure something out, but it also might happen because pitchers may take him too lightly. Everyone gets back on top, even for a little bit. (Yes, I referred to Papi as David.)
And when someone gets back on top, another one is humbled. And nobody sums in up better than Clint Hurdle:
"There are two kinds of people in this game: Those who are humble, and those who are about to be."
Touche.
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