Legendary New York Yankee Catcher Yogi Berra just recently celebrated his 90
th birthday on May 12
th. Yogi Berra is known for two reasons.
- He was a hall of fame catcher. He could receive, call a good game and he was always a clutch hitter for the Yankees during the 40’s and 50’s.
- He might have had the most unique way of twisting phrases into confusing, nonsensical masterpieces.
One of his finest read
“Baseball is 90% mental and the other half is physical.” Literally speaking, this quote makes no sense unless you have played this game for any period of time. Any player who has worn the uniform for a while will say that Yogi nailed it perfectly.
Although this game relies on our physical ability, the mental game of baseball is what separates us as we move up the baseball ladder.
If our head is not right then our body is not right. A player can have the proverbial five tools and never succeed because his head is not right.
Mentally, we must accept that we will fail. Mentally we have to accept that we will mess up but we can never let past failures get in the way of future success.
The game can beat you down to the point where you feel that you will never get another hit or record another out. And if you believe that then it is probably true.
Every baseball player has had to battle their inner demons and overcome their mental insecurities.
Negative thoughts are always right around the corner and they demand that we stay in the moment. This game demands our full attention and our full attention must be about making our team better and helping the team in any way possible.
We have to thank Yogi Berra for trying to make sense of a game that sometimes doesn’t make sense.
