Choking in the field. What could be more obvious?

Pete Kozma choked playing shortstop.  There's no other interpretation.  In game one of the Major Baseball League (MBL) finals, a.k.a., the World Series, the St. Louis shortstop missed two balls, both several feet above the ground, one a throw from the second baseman in the first inning, the other a soft bouncer to his backhand in the second inning.  Both could have been double plays.  They would have been bad errors for a 12 year old.  5-0 Boston after two innings.

So, how many idiots will deny that there is such a thing as choke, the opposite of clutch?

Saturday, October 19, 2013  Choke

People who are in denial about clutch and choke depend exclusively on the numbers, not what we can actually see on the field.  This is where the players know stuff the rest of us do not...

Ups and downs are attributed by some to ups and downs, without considering that a reason for fluctuations may be choking all along.  All players choke.  All players are clutch.  The difference is how much and when...

We all have good days and bad.  We all choke, no matter what we do.  To deny or ignore that is silly.  In baseball, listen to the players.  They don't know the numbers but they know each other in a way that the rest of us cannot.  When it comes to choking, players know and they know themselves the best.  A player knows when he choked.  He may not want to admit it, not even to himself, but he knows.  Way down deep, he knows.
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Wednesday, October 23, 2013, 7:30pm, Fenway Park
Attendance: 38,345, Time of Game: 3:17
Boston 8, St. Louis 1

In baseball choking is least obvious in batting because batters fail most of the time.  But it's still noticeable.  It's inescapable in the field where even lousy fielders succeed 90% of the time.  The choking by Kozma was so obvious that even in Boston he was charged with errors on both plays rather than provide a cookie hit to one of the home town batters.  Does the league provide non-local official scorers in the tournament?  Anyone know?

The batter after the second Kozma error singled past third baseman David Freese who missed a bouncer that looked difficult but playable.  Then on the next batter Cardinal right fielder Carlos Beltran made a clutch fielding play, robbing David Ortiz of a second four run home run in this tournament.  In the previous round Tiger Torii Hunter just missed a slightly more difficult catch on Ortiz in almost the same spot and also with the bases loaded.  Beltran watched the ball all the way.  Hunter did not.  A Boston cop in the bullpen jumped for joy when Hunter went head over heals and landed on his head in the pen.  I did not see the cop air born when Beltran robbed Fat Pappi.  Beltran was forced from the game with an injury to his torso from banging into the top of the low fence making the catch.

Maybe Cardinal manager Mike Matheny should have been demonstrative when he went to the mound to speak to his players.  Matheny did not seem to have much to say to starting pitcher Adam Wainwright.   Matheny should have stuck his finger into the chest of Kozma and asked him if he wanted to be out there.

You rarely see a manager embarrass a player by removing him from the field.  Billy Martin did it to Reggie Jackson in a 1978 Saturday afternoon game on national TV ... in Fenway Park.  Billy thought that Reggie had dogged it on a short fly to right and immediately sent Paul Blair out to replace Reggie.  When Reggie got into the dugout the two had to be separated, mostly Billy who I think wanted no part of Reggie without the advantage of a surprise sucker punch for which Billy was noted.  It cost Billy his job.  Martin was replaced by Bob Lemon who led the Yankees in their big comeback against Boston and the World Series win over the Dodgers.

Met manager Gil Hodges once thought the same thing about his left fielder Cleon Jones in Shea Stadium.  Hodges walked toward the mound but then continued out to left.  He asked Jones if he was hurt.  When Jones said that he was not, Hodges had Jones accompany him back to the dugout and replaced him.

Pitcher Wainwright could have been the sheriff last night and made it clear for all to see that he cannot both pitch and play shortstop at the same time.  Except that Wainwright put the leadoff runner on in the second when he called to catch an easy pop up and then let it drop, looking like a doofus.

That seems a little tough, right, by today's standards of behavior?  Don't show up or embarrass a teammate on the field, right?  What about the teammate failing to perform the easiest of baseball functions: fielding.  The culprit was batting 9th.  He was playing only because of what he could contribute with his fielding.  Hey, do your damn job!  Is that so bad, especially in the heat of battle?  Wake the the heck up or get the heck off the field.  That's how it would be handled in football or basketball.

Kozma missed balls that he can play in his sleep, plays that kids and old people can make.  He missed them because it was a big game on a world stage.  The pressure got to him.  He choked.