OK, I watched a world series game. It wasn't my fault. We had a house guest from St. Louis. She wanted to watch, my wife didn't. So, there I was. I watched professionals make errors (St. Louis, mostly). I'm reflecting on the fact that these guys are the one-in-a-zillion players who make it to the show. Literally, every kid playing baseball dreams of making it to the major leagues, and there are millions of them. Yet, they make errors.
Does anyone know how hard it is to even catch a ground ball? at 3rd base? even in American Legion ball? My best man, Denny Michael, played third base in American Legion ball and had a black eye (maybe 2?) in the one summer he played American Legion because the ball came at him so fast. And I thought he was the quickest player I ever knew. Here I am--40 years later and I've lost track of Denny. But I still remember that black eye. With that said, it is amazing that people can catch a grounder, much less a pop-up in all those lights with all those people watching...
Now the Cardinals hung on to win in a truly amazing contest that seemed to be over three times before David Freese hit his 11th-inning home run. But even Freese made an error, dropping an "easy pop-up." Is it pressure? Sure, that has to be part of it. But the pressure these guys have endured to get there was a steady diet anyway. And, they have played 180 games this year and practiced while warming up for all those games. And, in getting there, they fielded enough grounders and pop-ups to get 4,860 outs (roughly, considering a few extra-inning games and rain-shortened games).
But I guess that's why they play the games, nobody's perfect.
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