What Makes a Great Baseball Player?
Baseball pitch
Baseball is a sport which might seem boring at first, but once you get the hang of it, you will surely like it. At first glance it might seem that the players do not have to do too much, but the reality is that the players have to catch, throw, hit, and to be able to run like crazy in certain situations.
Yogi Berra, the famous baseball player once said “Baseball is 90 percent mental; the other half is physical” and he was true about it. Baseball is a physical game and a mental game in the same time. Psychologist Mike Stadler of the University of Missouri published the book “The Psychology of Baseball” in 2007, and in it he analyzes what one needs in order to be a successful baseball player. He said that baseball and psychology are very close, as baseball could not be played without it. Every time you look at a baseball player on the field, you realize that he is thinking about something; a strategy, a plan, or he might try to find certain ways of staying on focus, or of icing his opponent. All the sports are related to psychology, but in the case of baseball, the relationship is more obvious than in the other sports.
Stadler believes that the main reason for that is the fact that a baseball player has more time to think about his actions on the field. It is similar to the situation of a quarterback in football, only that the quarterback has to talk with the other players, and then he has to keep a close attention on the defense prior to the snap. In baseball, each of the players has time to think: the pitcher, the batter, the fielder, all of them. This time of thought gives the players an advantage, as they can think about a plan of attack, and they must be able to use that plan. The baseball players are gifted from the physical point of view as well and they have to compete against very gifted players.
Most of these players are capable of coordinating their mental and physical qualities. They have very fast reflexes, and they can react in milliseconds. They have to be focused all the times, especially the outfielders who are farther from the place of action. The Columbia University analyzed Babe Ruth and they discovered that he had better audio and visual reactions that most of the people, and that his eye-hand coordination was better than 98.8 percent of the population. Excellent vision is required in baseball, especially in the case of the hitters. They need to recognize the pitches depending on the spin, and since the ball is thrown at very high speeds, the vision needs to be in perfect condition. Without it, they would not be able to hit the ball as good as they can, and they would not be able to catch the balls either.
The reaction time is very important as well, and it seems that all the players are great when it comes to this. Sure, there are people who say that reaction can be acquired through practice, and it is true, but only to a certain point. These players are more gifted than the regular ones, and regardless of the training, a regular person will not be able to match the skills of a pro. Reaction is required regardless of position, as the batter will need to have it in order to hit, the fielders need it in order to catch the ball, and so on. It seems that the hitters use prediction in many occasions, as they study the pitchers and predict where they will throw. It has also been discovered that many of the greatest hitters do something which might sound strange: they stop following the ball when it is thrown.
Most of the coaches would say that a batter should keep his eyes on the ball, but according to the scientists that is impossible. A person can only keep his eyes on the ball up to a certain point, but when the ball is too close, he will lose sight of it. It seems that the pro players are aware of it, and as a result they stop looking at the ball when it is 6 or 7 feet away, and they move their sight towards the spot where they predict that the ball will be. It is kind of risky, but that is the best way to do it. However, it seems that this depends on the type of the pitch. The curveballs, fastballs, and so on, can be hit using this strategy, but the knuckleballs can not. Like I said, the batters often know the pattern in which the pitcher throws the ball, and that can help them predicting where the ball will be in certain occasions.
The game is very fast, and one has to be gifted in order to be able to play it at a professional level. The focus is very important as well, because besides having to constantly pay attention to the game, they need to ignore the distractions, such as the crowd noise, and so on. It is important for the players to focus on the opponent: for example the batter to focus only on the pitcher and on no one else. It is very important for the players to have a certain kind of personality. Just like in all the other major sports, a successful career in college, does not necessary mean that the player will be successful at the pro level as well. There have been numerous cases when star athletes in college have become busts in the professional leagues.
Many of them feel the pressure, and they can not play because of it. They last for two, or three seasons, and then they can no longer play in the league. Such was the case of Darryl Strawberry and Billy Beane. Both of them were excellent players in college, and both of them were drafted by the Mets in 1980. Strawberry was drafted with a higher pick, and when it was time to produce on the field, he proved to be much better than Beane. It is believed that Beane “chocked”, which means that the pressure got to him. Beane eventually still remained in the MLB, but as a general manager of the Oakland Athletics. Stadler said that Beane did not have the necessary attitude which a pro player needs to have. In professional sports, just like in many other situations in life, self-confidence is extremely important. The players need to have it in order to be able to play great on the field. Beane doubted himself, and because of it, he did not become successful.
Strawberry on the other hand was completely opposite, as he was full of confidence. Some would say that he was arrogant, as he considered himself a good player, prior to proving it. That attitude might have helped him, and might have saved his career. William Winslow developed the Athletic Motivation Inventory test, and it analyzes if one has the “baseball personality”, such as the one Strawberry had. The self-confidence is extremely important in the case of the batters as they will miss two thirds of the times. They need to make sure that they do not miss the other third as well. The fans can be extremely important, as they can make or break a player. If a player will play bad for numerous games, it is very likely that he will be affected mentally because of it. The fans can cheer him up and they can give him his confidence back.
They can also make things worse by booing him and by making him lose the faith in himself even further. The fans will not keep track of one’s career, but they will be interested in his performance in the last few games. They are not impressed by the statistics either. If a player is providing a great show on the field, hitting home-runs when it counts, and so on, the fans will not care that the statistics say that he played in a poor manner. Of course, there are cases when a player must follow his instincts. It has been proven that thinking too much about the actions performed on the field, might make a player choke, and that is exactly what happens with the players who are in a slump. These players tend to overanalyze things, thinking about how to swing the bat, and so on. They lose focus, and during that moment that will play bad most of the times. It seems that the players can be affected by outside factors as well.
Motivation is a huge part of the business, and it seems that the players are the most motivated in the years close to free-agency. They play better during those times because they know that that is their moment to make large amounts of money. According to Stadler, there is no such thing as clutch-hitting. That is considered to be a hit in extremely important moments, such as when a hit will assure the tie, or will bring the victory, and so on. It seems that the hitters do not think about these hits in a certain manner; they see them as being the same as the other ones, and that helps them a lot. Most of the pro players are used with these “special” moments, as they have most likely encountered them in the little leagues, college, minor leagues, and so on. Play ball!
