Rambling On About My Glory Days: Great Snap

Sooner or later all players snap. Frustration sets in and players just lose it for a short period of time. Often, this snap is a string of four letter words that, once spoken, makes players feel better and then they move on. Sometimes, fans see a player or coach go off on the field or in the dugout. Most of the time, though, these bits of frustration occur out of sight of fans, in or around the players’ locker room. One of the great snaps I was ever around occurred out of sight of players and fans, but could be heard by all. Here is how it went down.

Our starting pitcher was cruising along in the game with a 5 - 0 lead into the 5th inning. After getting two quick outs in the fifth, things started to fall apart for the pitcher. Most good baseball fans know that a starting pitcher has to complete 5 innings of a nine inning game to be eligible for a win and obviously, our pitcher was fully aware of this too. After a visit from the pitching coach didn’t help, our pitcher was taken out of the game with the score tied 5 to 5. There would be no win for the pitcher in that game and possibly even a loss on his record.

Baseball and life move on, but our pitcher’s frustration level had hit the wall or I should say had hit the locker. After being removed from the game and retiring to our locker room, there was this loud sound coming from the locker room for all to hear. It was obviously a noise created by someone swinging a baseball bat at an immovable object. As mentioned, this kind of “snapping” happens often in baseball, especially as the season wears on.

After we finally finished the 5th inning, I proceeded from my second base position into the dugout where I was met by one of my teammates. “Jack, you have to go see the locker room.” Obviously, I knew he was referring to the loud sounds that had come from there the previous inning. Up I tiptoed into the locker room only to notice nothing out of the ordinary. When I came back to the dugout I told my teammate that I didn’t see anything. “Did you count the number of lockers?” he asked. Obviously not, but it so happens that where there were once 10 or so wooden lockers in a row along one side of the locker room. There was now one less. Our starting pitcher had totally destroyed one locker and had already removed any remains of the deceased.

The pitcher received many congratulatory comments from teammates for the great snap and great contact made with the bat, of course. He also received a nice fine for the amount of replacing the locker. Life moved on as the circus, I mean season, continued.

Former major leaguer Jack Perconte is the author of The Making of a Hitter ( http://jackperconte.com ) and has a baseball instruction site that can be found at www.baseballcoachingtips.net . He has recently published his second book Raising an Athlete – How to Instill Confidence, Build Skills and Inspire a Love of Sport