“I don’t compare ’em, I just catch ’em.” — Willie Mays
From this point forward, when I see your picture or read an smays.com posting, I will think of “The Natural.”
Some athletes don’t pursue greatness, but have greatness thrust upon them.
Now, how about the rumors of your steroid use? To develop that physique, who plunged the needle into your bony butt? And, could athletes like you and A-Rod have succeeded to the levels you did without chemical enhancement?
On that note: is that a Budweiser you’re suckin’ on? Too many questions marks, sorry.
Sometimes, when the crowd wants to believe there’s a superstar named Mays at center field – a superstar named Mays appears at center field.
Every time I watch one of your monologues I’m in a state of constant, total a-mays-ment.
By not paying attention, you were spared the anxiety of seeing the ball meeting the bat and starting upwards in the arch that would eventually land it onto your chest. Had you seen it, you might have panicked and/or tried to judge where the ball would come down and moved a few feet to the left, right, forward or back (thus not being in position to have it land on you and into your glove).
Because you only realized what was happening — that the ball was coming at you — when it was descending, you didn’t have enough time to over-think and so you were able to, no matter how unwittingly, catch it. You didn’t have time to think about whether you should or shouldn’t raise your glove or any other thing that might have prevented you from having caught the ball. You had no time for paralysis from analysis, only the time to reflexively react.
My take on the moral is: better not to over-think when a little reflexivity will do the trick. Maybe reflexes are the difference between sucking and being naturally good.
As an aside, I had the pleasure of seeing Willie Mays play in his last season of baseball (NY Mets). He did perform the basket catch during the game and when leaving the stadium, walking through the parking lot I saw a pink Cadillac with “SAY HEY” plates. I was a-Mays’d.
“I don’t compare ’em, I just catch ’em.” — Willie Mays
From this point forward, when I see your picture or read an smays.com posting, I will think of “The Natural.”
Some athletes don’t pursue greatness, but have greatness thrust upon them.
Now, how about the rumors of your steroid use? To develop that physique, who plunged the needle into your bony butt? And, could athletes like you and A-Rod have succeeded to the levels you did without chemical enhancement?
On that note: is that a Budweiser you’re suckin’ on? Too many questions marks, sorry.
Sometimes, when the crowd wants to believe there’s a superstar named Mays at center field – a superstar named Mays appears at center field.
Every time I watch one of your monologues I’m in a state of constant, total a-mays-ment.
By not paying attention, you were spared the anxiety of seeing the ball meeting the bat and starting upwards in the arch that would eventually land it onto your chest. Had you seen it, you might have panicked and/or tried to judge where the ball would come down and moved a few feet to the left, right, forward or back (thus not being in position to have it land on you and into your glove).
Because you only realized what was happening — that the ball was coming at you — when it was descending, you didn’t have enough time to over-think and so you were able to, no matter how unwittingly, catch it. You didn’t have time to think about whether you should or shouldn’t raise your glove or any other thing that might have prevented you from having caught the ball. You had no time for paralysis from analysis, only the time to reflexively react.
My take on the moral is: better not to over-think when a little reflexivity will do the trick. Maybe reflexes are the difference between sucking and being naturally good.
As an aside, I had the pleasure of seeing Willie Mays play in his last season of baseball (NY Mets). He did perform the basket catch during the game and when leaving the stadium, walking through the parking lot I saw a pink Cadillac with “SAY HEY” plates. I was a-Mays’d.