It’s great to be talented. It also helps to be smart.
Wayne Gretzky once said, “A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be.” Great athletes are highly skilled. The best are also smart.
Oakland baseball fans will always live with the memory of Derek Jeter’s “flip” play in Game 3 of the 2001 American League Division Series between the Yankees and A’s. With the Yanks leading 1-0 in the bottom of the seventh and Jeremy Giambi on first, Terrence Long drilled a Mike Mussina pitch down the right-field line. Shane Spencer retrieved it but made a wild throw over the heads of both cutoff men. Jeter came out of nowhere, running near the first-base foul line, grabbed the ball, and shoveled it backhand to catcher Jorge Posada, who tagged out Giambi, who chose not to slide.
Jeter downplayed the brilliant play, noting that he was just where he was supposed to be. It’s a play that the Yankees ran in spring training. That’s where the shortstop is told to be. So credit manager Joe Girardi for being smart as well.
Great athletes not only know where the ball or puck is going to be. They know where their teammates are going to be.
In the quarterfinal of the 2019 Women’s World Cup match between France and the U.S., Alex Morgan made a beautiful lead pass for the U.S. down the right flank to Tobin Heath. Heath took the ball down to the end line. All eyes, including those of France’s defenders, were on Sam Mewis, who was sprinting in the box toward the goal. Everyone anticipated Heath’s crossing pass to go to her. But Heath delayed a bit, then sent her pass back behind Mewis, seemingly to no one. But in swooped Megan Rapinoe and blasted the ball into the net for a 2-0 U.S. lead.
“The most dangerous pass is a negative (backward) pass that is right between the penalty kick line and 6-yard box,” said Will C. Wood High (Vacaville, CA) girls varsity soccer coach Andrea Daniels, who was in attendance at the game. “It’s too far for a goalkeeper to come out and grab it, and usually a defender is sprinting toward their own goal, so it’s hard to clear, and an offensive player is running towards goal, so it’s an easier finish. I think she (Heath) just sent the pass to the right area, hoping someone would finish it.”
Let’s recall another stroke of genius — Arthur Ashe’s unbelievable upset of Jimmy Connors in the 1975 Wimbledon final. Ashe was 31. Connors, the reigning Wimbledon champ, was nine years younger and had won the 1974 Australian and U.S. Opens. Many thought he was invincible. After Ashe beat Tony Roche in the semifinals, he sat in the stands to watch Roscoe Tanner face Connors. Tanner had the fastest serve in tennis, but Connors sent back every serve faster and beat Tanner in straight sets. Ashe realized he could never outhit Connors. So he chipped, lobbed, and hit low to Connors’ forehand volley, unlike Ashe’s standard power game. It drove Connors crazy. Ashe won the first two sets 6-1. Connors fought back to take the third set, 7-5. Then Ashe returned to his usual style and won the last set 6-4 to win the championship.
That was the tennis version of rope-a-dope, the blueprint Muhammed Ali employed to beat previously undefeated heavyweight champion George Foreman in the “Rumble in the Jungle” in Zaire in 1974. Employing a high-risk strategy, Ali leaned back on the ropes and allowed Foreman to come at him with everything he had. Ali absorbed many of the punches with his arms and body, but he also took some hard shots to the head. Ali repeatedly tied Foreman up and hung on him, further tiring him. He also taunted Foreman, whispering, “Is that all you got, George?” Foreman later admitted that the taunts dispirited him. He realized that was all he had. By the eighth round, Foreman was exhausted. Sensing the kill, Ali came out swinging and connected with at least three solid rights, the last one knocking Foreman down for the count.
In the 1973 NBA Eastern Semifinals between the New York Knicks and the Baltimore Bullets, Baltimore’s Phil Chenier guarded Walt Frazier. In a moment of frustration, with Frazier’s back turned, Chenier intentionally delivered a hard punch to the back of Frazier’s neck. Somehow, the refs missed it, but everybody watching that game on TV, including myself, stared at the set in disbelief. Did Chenier really do that? Why didn’t Clyde (Frazier’s nickname) turn around and clock him? As Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News described, “Frazier didn’t blink an eye or look to return the blow. Clyde knew how to get even. He spent the rest of the night lighting up Chenier. It makes you wonder if Frazier would behave differently in this trash-talking, cheap-shot era of the NBA.”
Let’s credit some managers and coaches for smart and daring moves, too. Dick Williams was managing the A’s against the Cincinnati Reds in the 1972 World Series. In Game 3, the Reds broke a scoreless tie with a run in the top of the eighth inning and threatened to score more in the frame. Cincinnati had runners on second and third with one out and the dangerous Johnny Bench coming to bat. The obvious strategy was to walk Bench and hope that Rollie Fingers could induce a ground ball from Tony Perez for a force at home or an inning-ending double play. But Williams never cared for the obvious. He had Fingers pitch to Bench. But when the count went to 3-2, Williams came out to the mound for a conference with Fingers and catcher Gene Tenace. He pointed to the on-deck circle and first base, wanting an intentional walk. But he told Tenace to set up behind the opposite batter’s box as if he would receive ball four, then sneak back behind the plate. And he told Fingers to throw a slider for a strike. They did just that, the slider nipping the outside corner for a called strike three.
Then there was the Philly Special in Super Bowl LII. On fourth and goal, Eagles coach Doug Pederson decided to go for a touchdown instead of a field goal against the New England Patriots. Quarterback Nick Foles moved up behind his offensive line, and the ball was directly snapped to running back Corey Clement. Clement pitched the ball to Trey Burton, who passed to a wide-open Foles for the touchdown. Foles became the first player in Super Bowl history to catch and throw a touchdown, and the Eagles went on to win 41-33 and claim their first championship in 57 years.
It’s great to be talented. It also helps to be smart.
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Matt Sieger, now retired sports reporter/columnist who worked for New York State and California newspapers, did his undergraduate work at Cornell University and received a master’s in journalism from Syracuse University. This article first appeared in The Vacaville Reporter on July 2, 2019.
