Controlling the Uncontrollables

I apologize for the misleading nature of the title of this blog. Uncontrollables are by their very definition incapable of being manipulated. Whether it is the weather, the umpires, your teammates, your coaches, the way the mound is shaped, the one thing that all of these have in common is the fact that there is nothing you, as a pitcher, can do to control them. "Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and sometimes...it rains" as Kevin Costner (as Crash Davis in Bull Durham) said. The point being that you must be mentally tougher than all of your outside influences.

As we consider all of these outside influences, we must look introspectively to consider how we would feel if presented with these kinds of situations. So many times I hear ball players complain about how the weather affected their ability to throw strikes or how their coach was getting on them too much in between innings. The thing that both of these scenarios have in common is that neither has any bearing on the actual playing of the game. The weather is exactly the same for both teams and your coach isn't out there throwing the pitches foryou during the game. Therefore, an "Intelligent Pitcher" must not allow himself to be affected by the weather or the less than uplifting words of his coach.

Let's say the game you are starting gets moved back an hour and they've used too much field crew used too much turface on the mound to get it ready. You may try to argue that pushing a game time back throw off the routine that you are used to and that the turface may affect the rhythm of your mechanics. To that I say, shenanigans. Sometimes your routine has to be adjusted. Other times you have to pitch off a less than perfect mound. As a pitcher, you still have one job to do. That is to get hitters out. No matter what happens, you are the leader of your team while on defense and they rely on you to overcome these obstacles.

As we take this a step further, we must realize that all of the previously mentioned scenarios are completely, 100% out of your control (hence the phrase uncontrollables). So by definition, it is a complete waste of time to worry about changing them. Instead, the best advice I've ever received came from my lo A Southbend Silverhawks manager, Mark Haley. He said "You cannon control all of the things that are out of your control. What you can control, however, is you handle yourself in these situations." In a nutshell, the only thing that truly have any mastery of is the way you deal with all of the games ins and outs, ups and downs. And when you think about it, how true this really is. You can't control your coach getting upset with you, but you can control how you respond to him. Do you fold up and mope? Do you make excuses and deflect blame? Or do you accept responsibility, make and adjustment and get better? You can't control the fact the mound is soggy and the game time got moved back half way through your warm up routine (this actually happend to me at William and Mary). But you can control how you respond. Do you convince yourself that you can't pitch on such a crappy mound? Do you have an immediate excuse ready if you give up a run after the game time is changed? Or do you look at the mound as just another mound and the game time as just another game to win?

I hope you catch my drift here. Baseball is such a mentally active game. Half of the game truly is 90% mental (Yogi Berra). If you convince your mind of a certain way to react, than your body will respond. As all of your seasons get ready to kick off, take a second to analyze your goals for the season. Think about how you plan on achieving the goals. Consider what some of the issues that may prevent you from reaching those goals. If any of these things are directly related to your work ethic (like stay up too late, or partying, or not doing your conditioning or lifting) than make an effort right now to adjust them to achieve your goals. And if they are beyond your control, mental prepare to deal with these things in way that only makes you tougher and more determined to dominate the competition no matter what the game itself throws your way.

Never underestimate the power of mental game...

Until Next Time!!