Just sitting here on a Thursday night, watching Dodgers-Cubs on MLB Network, and an epiphany hits me - time to blog!
I like to think I thought up the title
The Gift of Blankness, but I'm not 100% sure, so all you litigious types,
keep your writs of habeas corpus or whatever to your bad selves.
So what is
The Gift of Blankness? Simple. Baseball is the type of game that can prey on your mind if you let it, and the more you think about not hitting, or making an error or doing anything wrong, the more likely you are to keep not hitting, making errors and making mistakes. The Gift of Blankness is the ability to tune all that out, each moment is clear and unencumbered, and you have no baggage to tote. Failure is short-lived in the holder of the Gift's mind - and they succeed because they can.
In the book
Moneyball by Michael Lewis (coming to a
theater near you), the dynamic between two ballplayers (Billy Beane and Lenny Dykstra) is described:
"A high school phenomenon who chose pro ball over Stanford, Beane was drafted by the New York Mets in the same draft that brought Darryl Strawberry to the big leagues. Coming up in the Mets farm system, he roomed with Lenny Dykstra, who was destined for a permanent spot in the Mets outfield.
As Lewis tells us, they were two very different kinds of ball players and the contrast is instructive: “Lenny thought of himself and Billy as two buddies racing together down the same track, but Billy sensed differences between himself and Lenny. Physically, Lenny didn’t belong in the same league with him. He was half Billy’s size and had a fraction of Billy’s promise – which is why the Mets hadn’t drafted him until the 13th round. Mentally, Lenny was superior, which was odd, considering Lenny wasn’t what you’d call a student of the game. Billy remembers sitting with Lenny in a Mets dugout watching the opposing pitcher warm up. ‘Lenny says, “So who’s that big dumb ass out there on the hill?” And I say, “Lenny, you’re kidding me, right? That’s Steve Carlton. He’s maybe the greatest left-hander in the history of the game.” Lenny says, “Oh, yeah! I knew that!” He sits there for a minute and says, “So, what’s he got?” And I say, “Lenny, come on. Steve Carlton. He’s got heat and also maybe the nastiest slider ever.” And Lenny sits there for a while longer as if he’s taking that in. Finally he just says, “Shit, I’ll stick him.” I’m sitting there thinking, that’s a magazine cover out there on the hill and all Lenny can think is that he’ll stick him.’"
So the point? - Lenny had
The Gift of Blankness. Blank is Beautiful. Get Blank Ballplayers.
