26
2012
Baseball Is Ninety Percent Mental
An article by 
“Baseball is ninety percent mental and the other half is physical.” – Yogi Berra
Everyone loves a good “Yogism.” The funny thing about that one in particular, is that it makes absolutely no sense, and yet it makes perfect sense at the same time. Yogi’s math didn’t add up, but he was definitely on to something.
Psychologists are more convinced than ever that our lives gravitate toward the directions of our most dominant thoughts. In other words, people with very positive outlooks, tend to live very positive lives – while those with more negative outlooks, tend to lead more negative lives. You’ve heard the saying “we reap what we sow” – well psychologists are finding that this saying may be more than just a saying. It may hold a deeper meaning.
The same ideas hold true in the sports world, but especially baseball, where Yogi cleverly proclaimed that baseball is really ninety percent mental, and only half physical. The athletes’ minds are often where the games are won or lost. Not necessarily on the field. A study was once conducted on Olympic athletes where they were connected to bio-feedback equipment, and then asked to close their eyes, and run the race in their minds. They weren’t moving their limbs, but the equipment was picking up the muscle fibers firing in the same way as if they were actually running the race. And thus, the art of visualization was born. Many athletes practice this today, where they play out the events of a game in their mind before it happens.
I am reminded of a story I heard about Jose Lima which reflects the power the mind has over the athlete’s performance. I’m sure everyone remembers his very dominating 1998 and 1999 seasons, but Lima will be remembered more for his legendary collapse starting in the year 2000, and how he was never able to get his career back on track after that year. People will say that they don’t understand why an athlete’s careers can do a complete 360 like Lima’s did. They attribute it to the athlete simply not having it anymore. I’m not saying that can’t happen, but athletes’ skills tend to erode slowly as they age, and not just shut off like a switch. When we see a collapse of that magnitude, where it seems as if someone flipped a switch on a player’s career, the switch is most likely in the player’s mind, and not so much in the physical.
In Lima’s case, the Houston Astros happened to be moving into Minute Maid Park for the start of the 2000 season. This was the season which followed his most dominant 21 win season in 1999. Lima was on top of the pitching world. As the story goes – after Minute Maid was built, Lima was touring the stadium and walked out on to the field and to the pitcher’s mound. He looked around. He saw the short distance to the left field seats. This was clearly a hitter’s ballpark. After a 21 win season, and a career that seemed to be headed for super stardom, Lima looked around and proclaimed he would never be able to pitch in that stadium. What followed his thoughts was probably one of the biggest collapses an athlete can ever have. Sadly, he never got his career back on track.
As you can see, the mind is very powerful. Baseball is one of the more cerebral sports. Hitting slumps in baseball are generally mental, and sometimes a simple changing of thinking can break hitters out of slumps. The hitters that can’t change the thinking which has gotten them into the slumps, tend to wallow in slumps, sometimes never to return back to form (like Jason Bay– we will get to this later). A lot of times, the thinking is acting as a placebo effect. A player that thinks that they can’t hit in particular places, or pitch in particular places, actually causes it to occur.
This placebo effect could also be why players careers tend to take off when they move on to other teams. Simply thinking that they could not play in one city, and that playing in a new city will be better for them, is sometimes all that is needed. It makes you wonder if performance enhancing drugs in baseball actually make the players better baseball players, or is it the thought of using performance enhancing drugs making these players better ball players?
Don’t get me wrong, I understand that PEDs do enhance physical performance – but it doesn’t give a hitter a magical power to actually make consistent contact with the baseball. A player that couldn’t hit a curveball before using PEDs, won’t be able to all of a sudden start hitting curveballs after using PEDs. The ball may go further after making contact, but it is the mental perception that using the PED will make them better players actually making them better hitters. It’s not the PED itself making the players better hitters.
Now on to how this all applies to the New York Mets, and more specifically Jason Bay. Jason Bay seems to be experiencing a very similar collapse to that of Jose Lima. I’m not really sure what happened when Bay arrived in New York, but it was clearly the point that his career took a turn for the worst. You will never get me to believe that he just lost all his ability overnight. This collapse was more than likely due to something mental.
Bay may never be the same. Much like Lima, he may never regain is super star status. The thoughts of failure may be so entrenched now, that even a change of scenery may not be the placebo needed for Bay to regain his all-star caliber play. Jason Bay expects to make outs at the plate. He has lost the battle in his mind. I firmly believe the physical tools are still there, because if they weren’t, the Mets probably would just cut him, and let him play independent baseball somewhere. They are keeping him around to see if he can flip that mental switch, and get his career back on track. They hope he can at least give them some sort of production, because physically, he still can.
I’m no psychologist, but I have been through slumps. The majority of the time, it’s not anything physical or anything mechanical causing it. I understand how easy it is to get caught up in a slump because you are trying to avoid making outs, instead of getting hits. I have to say, it is a shame to see how Jason Bay has let this take control of him. If he can get back in control, I really have no doubts that he can be a productive player again. The question is, can he get back in control?
About the Author: Mitch Petanick
19 Comments + Add Comment
NL East Standings
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Braves | 42 | 30 | .583 | - |
| Phillies | 35 | 37 | .486 | 7.0 |
| Nationals | 34 | 36 | .486 | 7.0 |
| Mets | 27 | 40 | .403 | 12.5 |
| Marlins | 22 | 48 | .314 | 19.0 |
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Hey Mitch, can you think of any other player over the last 25 years to have such a drastic drop in performance not due to injury (which based on this post I don’t believe you do) or steroids?
Jason Bay 3 Yr Avg 2007-2009: .267/BA, .362/OBP, .493/SLG, 32/HR, 110/RBI, 105/R
Jason Bay 3 Yr Avg 2010-2012: .234/BA, .318/OBP, .369/SLG, 15/HR, 70/RBI, 73/R
Not off the top of my head
How about Roberto Alomar in 2002-2004?
Another guy who once he got here was never the same player he was before we got him.
That’s a good one…but he was 34 by the time he got to the Mets…Jason Bay is 34 right now
Carlos Baerga fell off the map when he joined Mets at ripe old age of 28.
Maybe the Mets are jinxed at second base?
LOL Are you suggesting there is a Jeff Kent Curse?
Baerga, Wow! Now there is a name I haven’t heard in quite some time. Used to love watching him beat up on Yankee pitching. I remember one game where the Indians batted around in one inning and he hit homers from both sides of the plate.
Steve Blass comes to my mind. A very good and sometimes overpowering pitcher for seven seasons he literally fell apart all at once and was out of baseball after his eighth.
There have been theories but to my knowledge no substantive answer as to what causes this sudden and complete lack of confidence in an athlete so successful but its occurrence, however, has since been coined “Steve Blass Disease”.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/blassst01.shtml
Yes but then again Alomar was also a sure HOFer by then and that was never in the cards for Bay even if he had maintained his past performance another 4 years….
Yea it’s called HIV
Not an attempt to say Bay didn’t decline here at all…
But in regard to those counting stats you listed, It should be noted he missed a lot of time on the DL during those years.
I agree 100% here Mitch….
And I believe those Fences got in his head and he tried so hard to compensate and completly lost the swing that got him that contract.
And I know you have disagreed with me on this in the past but the Batter/Pitcher Matchup also has a very high mental strategy component as well.
Each tries to get inside the head of the other and get them to do what they want.
Which also goes to why I don’t like this “APPROACH” we keep hearing about because it seems to want to apply a one size fits all to pitchers it won’t really work all that well with.
If you tell guys to go up to the plate and WAIT for something they will WAIT by default…
That is also a product of the mental state.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Re2AF3OReOY
I agree completely with this, reminds me of the corked bat theory. Mythbusters proved that a corked bat will actually hinder your performance but players would sometimes hit better with them (I’d love if someone could check on this. I’m having trouble finding the stats of players while they used corked bats) due to the fact they believed they would. They felt more positive about being able to drive the ball and in fact did so.
In regards to Bay, this article written before the season started shows that Bay is too hard on himself. http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/big-apple-struggles-ny-mets-slugger-jason-bay-sees-brighter-days-article-1.1020983
He thought too much, put too much pressure on himself and makes himself feel like complete crap. He overthinks, but when he isn’t he produces. This article gave me hope for Bay going into the season along with the walls being brought in but now, I don’t know what to say. He’s lost, and probably shaming himself right now. I think he really needs to sit down with someone and clear his head and tell him “Fuck it, don’t think, just do”.
I saw that episode and they did sort of miss some of the aspects of advantage that the corked bat provides which are Three fold…
1 – By making the bat lighter it increases bat speed. The bat itself doesn’t add anything by itself but it adds to the player wielding it. If I remember correctly they completely ignored that aspect of it in thier busting….
2 – By corking a bat you can use a bigger bat with bigger barrel and gain more bat to make contact with yet swing it like a much lighter bat and maintain that Bat speed which is so important.
3 – By decreasing the Mass you make the bat easier to control and manipulate during a swing making adjusting to a pitch much easier to do.
None of those aspects were tested in thier experiments.
Which is why the MLB results reflect differently from theirs.
And there may also be an added mental component to all of this where the fact you THINK you have an edge that may or may not really exist is an edge unto itself!
When I was younger around 14-15 I worked in a local Hallmark card store and we had several gifts and keepsakes too including books. I will never forget the day my manager came up to me and asked me to price this small display of books to put on the counter by the register. Anyway it was a small yellow book with all these “Yogi-isms”. Now I must admit, I loved baseball and the Mets back then but I knew hardly anything about Yogi yet. I went through that book and I couldn’t stop laughing for the rest of the night. I’ll never forget that. I didnt even learn until later that night when I told my dad, that he even managed the Mets. LMAO I love Yogi now.
A yogism modified fort this ownership:
“Baseball is ninety percent mental. The other half is fiscal.”
Well the Mets make me 100% exhausted!