I have talked with many pitchers over the years who admit to me they always try to be perfect on the mound. By that, I mean they want every pitch to be located with precision, every play to be made behind them, every call to go for them. That’s a wonderful fantasy to have but the reality is, in the history of Major League Baseball, which has been around 140 years and 200,000 games played, there have only been 23 pitchers who have ever been “perfect”; no runs, no walks, no hits, no errors. TWENTY- THREE!!
So, it’s fair to say, a pitcher no matter, starter or reliever, will face some sort of challenge during the game. These challenges should be expected and could come in the form of a hit, a walk, an error, a bad call and who knows, all of these could happen in the same inning…..but they will happen. The pitchers perception of these situations is the key to overcoming them.
As a young pitcher became really anxious pitching with men in scoring position. I viewed these situations as threats and my body responded that way. I would get anxious, tense, and fearful of giving up a run. I needed to find a better way, mentally, to face these situations. So I changed my perspective about them. Instead of viewing every situation with men on base as a threat, I started to view them as challenges and more importantly, challenges I knew I was going to have. As a starting pitcher looking to go seven innings, I figured I was going to have 3 situations to overcome, so I numbered them. For example, say the lead-off hitter in the second inning doubles....the next
guy gets and infield single….I’m faced with first and third no outs…..I would say,
“OK, this is situation #1, I knew this
was coming so let’s deal with it. What I need here is a ground ball. Since it’s the second inning, I’ll take 2 outs in
exchange for the run.”
So my focus became more on the task (get a ground ball by throwing a good low pitch) than the fear of “I don’t want to give up any runs.”
Changing my perception of the situation from threat to challenge altered my body and mind response to them. Instead of pitching with fear I was pitching with focus. I was relaxed and in control. And as we all know, the ability to pitch out of these inevitable situations determines if you will get and early shower to give your team a chance for the win.
Perception and Performance
The Baseball Observer - Mental Skills Issue
50