Page 157 - The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin_Neat plip book

I asked Keith how he dealt with pi tchers thr owing at him. A pitche r will
sometimes either hit a batter or come very close to hi tting a batter with a pi tch

in order to plant a psychological seed. Getting nai led by a 90- mph fastba ll is
not a pleasant experience, and many serious inj ur ies hav e come out of thi s da rk
gamesmanship. The infamous scenes of hi tters charging the mound and
clubhouses emptying into terrible br awls are us ual ly the resul t of a ba tter

feeling that he is being targeted.
If the batter is actually hit, he automatically gets on first base—as if he were
walked. This is obviously less than gr eat for a pitcher, but it is a calcul ated
decision, because many batters will get ps yched out by bei ng pel ted—a nd the y

will be scared at the plate for the rest of the gam e or even for years whe n facing
that pitcher. Knowing that the fastbal l might be tailing toward your he ad
complicates the hitting experience, and many batters get intimida ted. Or the y
get mad. Either way, if a pitcher feels that he can get in your head by thr owing

at you, i n Keith’s words, “You’ll be on y our but t!”
For Keith, pitchers dug their own gr aves by targeting hi m. He expl ains :
“That was always a positive motivational thi ng for me; if a pitcher kno cke d me
down or hit me on purpose, well by go lly you’ ve got your han ds ful l for the rest

of the year with me. Particularly the rest of thi s game.” Over the years pi tche rs
learned to stay away from Keith, because they woul d be rous ing a gi ant by
hitting him.
Keith told me a story about Frank Robi ns on, one of the all-time gr eatest

baseball players, and the only man to be MVP of both the American Le ague
and the National League. Robinson beg an hi s career in Cinci nna ti ba ck in
1956. In those days pitchers threw at bat ters all the time. The Reds were
playing a three-game series against St. Lo ui s, and in the first gam e, Robi ns on

got hit by a pitch and went on to hav e a phen omenal night . The ne xt da y the
pitcher hit Robinson again, and he jus t destroyed the Cardi nal s thr ougho ut the
whole series. A week later, the two teams played another series, but before it
began Red Schoendienst, the St. Lo ui s manager—an d Keith’s fi st mana ge r—

called a team meeting and said “The first pi tcher who hi ts Fr ank Robi ns on is
fined one hundred bucks! Just leave him alone! ” Keith loves thi s story. It
represents what a truly dominant compet itor sho ul d be all about . Guy s like
Miller, Jordan, Hernandez, and Robi ns on are so far beyond sha ka bl e tha t

opponents, i nstead of playing ment al games, co wer for fear of ins pi ring t he m.