THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

Thank you Tango for some very special moments. So, how do we apply this concept to baseball - is it like Williams seeing the baseball coming out of the batter’s hand or Ichiro anticipating the ball flight as it leaves the bat ?

Correction - pitcher’s hand !!!

Hmmmm, baserunning and fielding would be obvious areas where enhanced perception of the playing field could be helpful, let alone batting (detecting trajectory of a pitch, where the ball will land, etc).

I think the best players in many sports have this ability. In baseball it would obviously help the batter if he could tell what pitch is coming as early as possible, and if he can identify a pitch by the pitcher’s motion that would be a large advantage. From the pitcher’s perspective, it would be to his advantage not to give any hint to the batter (by motion, grip, or any other “tell"), forcing the hitter to rely on whatever information he can get from the motion and spin of the ball after release. Fielding and baserunning have been mentioned, and there certainly are players who make better baserunning decisions than others. I find fielding particularly interesting. Cal Ripken Jr. was not projected to have the speed to play shortstop, and in fact he wasn’t fast. Yet he was able to play the position very well. I’ve seen plenty of fast outfielders who had trouble figuring out where the ball would land. What if the best fielders are in motion by the time the ball is struck? The fielder can see the pitch coming in and the batter’s reaction. It might be possible to tell if the batter is swinging a bit early or late and know whether to break left or right. The phrase “off with the crack of the bat” might truly be said “before the crack of the bat” for those fielders.