Watching Tuesday’s NYY-Cleveland MLB playoff game was educational.
All phases of life have basics to learn and follow. Consider one life lesson taught to children: Don’t’ run with scissors! It’s a simple basic that teaches a potentially life-saving lesson: if you run with scissors in your hand and trip and fall, the point might enter your body somewhere and cause trauma. Simple. So do it because it may save your life from needless pain.
As our lives expand, we are taught other lessons, and many of the basics apply in games and sports. For instance, as youngsters begin to play chess, they are taught to try and control the four middle squares. Controlling the central four squares is a simple but strong basic that will improve play.
Following a basic (photo, Inside Lacrosse)
Then, there are things we should not do because they are contrary to “the basics.” For example, running downfield in lacrosse with one hand holding the stick and cradling the ball may look cool, but it breaks a basic rule. Those doing it have less control of the stick/ball, and an opposing player has a much better chance of hitting the stick with the ball and knocking it out of the pocket. Two hands on the stick (a basic) give more control in moving the ball downfield.
Posture is an important basic in my two favorite sports, running and wrestling.
Each racing event–from the sprints to the marathon–requires correct posture for maximum performance. The successful runner keeps the head, shoulders, hips, and knees in a vertical line above the foot plant. It is a very important basic, especially when tiring toward the end of a race.
In wrestling, a beginner is taught the importance of keeping their head erect in every situation. If you drop your head, your opponent can use your poor posture against you. Head-up leads to better performance. Last month, Jordan Burroughs used a basic takedown to win a world wrestling championship. He kept his head up as he scored two double-leg takedowns, a move taught to every beginning wrestler.
Baseball, like chess, is a game of subtleties with plenty of nuances that require players to learn and follow the basics. For instance, every aspiring baseball or softball player is taught to run out every infield fly. You never know when a defensive player might make a sloppy play and drop the “soft out.” Run to first base as if no one will catch the fly—just in case it is dropped.
Josh Donaldson–a major leaguer with twelve years of experience and now a third baseman for the New York Yankees–forgot a basic in the division series-opening game Tuesday night in NYC. Leading off in the bottom of the 5th inning, the score tied at 1-1 with Cleveland, Donaldson sent an opposite-field drive to right field. Confident that the ball would clear the short wall at Yankee Stadium, he put his head down, began a trot (swagger), and slapped the hand of the first base coach.
Oops! The assumption of a home run (like most of those pesky disappointments) was wrong, and the Cleveland right fielder followed the basics. He caught the bounce off the wall, turned, and threw to his shortstop on second base. He, in turn, threw to the first baseman, who tagged the stunned (and still trotting) star out as he tried to return to the base.
So, instead of a runner being in scoring position on second base in a tied playoff game, the Yankees had an unnecessary situation. Had Donaldson and the first base coach followed a basic taught to all beginning players, the Yankees would have been in scoring position.
The basics, like not running with scissors, are taught to keep us from self-inflicted wounds. Like gravity, they will keep us grounded if we follow them.
