Jeff Bailey Question
by BTLove on Mar 21, 2009 12:13 AM EDT
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PrintSo I know that Bailey used to play catcher. And I knew that he did not stick their because of defensive issues, but I had no idea the exact nature of his deficiencies. According to the answer to the first question in Amalie Benjamin's mailbag:
[Bailey] used to be a catcher until he got a mental block that wouldn't allow him to throw back to the pitcher's mound.
What?! I had no idea. Is that true? Does anyone have any information about this? That is the exact plot of Major League II. Can't we just get Jake Taylor to give him a Playboy? Basically all of our catcher problems would be solved if Jeff Bailey could just throw a damn baseball back to the pitcher?
On a related not, I would much rather have Jeff Bailey on this team than Brad Wilkerson.
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There's a Globe article
http://www.boston.com/sports/articles/2006/07/07/he_didnt_throw_it_all_away/
Apparently he could throw anywhere except to the mound. I don’t quite understand it—perhaps it was a fear of getting injured.
Two reasons
1) He’d be mocked so mercilessly that whatever mental block he has would get worse.
2) If there are men on base, that’s license to steal the second he rolls the ball.
Then:
1) He needs to toughen up
2) Roll it fast. The first couple of runners would get picked off by the pitcher, and that’d be the end of it.
It doesn't work that way
Even the toughest player in baseball has a limit, and that limit would be exceeded by the kind of mocking he’d receive by having to roll the ball back to the mound. (Although, frankly, if you can’t throw the ball 60 feet accurately and you’re a professional baseball player, I’d say you deserve to be mocked that much and you don’t belong in professional baseball anyway.)
And no matter how fast you roll a ball, you’re still asking for trouble. What if the ball takes a bad hop? What if your pitcher isn’t great at fielding ground balls? If you don’t roll the ball fast enough, baserunners will steal bases all day, but if you roll the ball too fast, your pitcher is still going to miss the ball a few times a game, and even when he doesn’t, the runners will still run all day because he’ll have to field the ball cleanly before turning and throwing the ball in order to hold them.
Hahahaha
That is funny. But i’ve read about cases like these— like some players who had a mental block and couldn’t make the throw over to first base. The cure was to visualize successful throws.
Well, I'll appreciate for you to keep my zingers outta your mouth!
They had him talk with the Sox's psychologist
But he switched positions before he could see if it would work.
It’s a shame, really.
Unfortunately, it was also long enough ago that he’d probably have to relearn to catch from scratch.
Perhaps Bailey can call Julian Tavarez and arrange for a training session on the fine art of rolling the baseball.
by matzushocka45 on Mar 21, 2009 9:38 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs
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