Concentrate On What You Must Do. Don’t Be Distracted By What You Have Done.

“You must forget the last game and the last inning and the last batter, because there is not a thing that you can do about them. The only batter you can get is the one standing up there at the plate with the bat in his hand. You can have the strongest arm in the world, but without total concentration, you will never be a winning pitcher.”

– Sandy Koufax (pitcher for the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers 1955-1966: 1963 NL MVP; 1963, 1965, and 1966 Cy Young Award Winner; inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame 1972)

The toughest thing for a young baseball player to do I believe is move beyond moments of failure.  When you strike out as a hitter, when you flub a play as a fielder, when you give up a big hit as a pitcher, these are the moments that can linger in your mind if you let them.  When things haven’t gone well, or when things aren’t going well, young players are susceptible to unproductive thought and emotional turmoil.

If you choose to play baseball, before you ever step on a baseball field, you should realize and accept an inherent part of the game – baseball is filled with failure.  Ted Williams, considered perhaps the greatest hitter that ever lived, once said about hitting that, “baseball is the only field of endeavor where a man can succeed three times out of ten and be considered a good performer.”  A .300 lifetime hitter (someone that fails seven times out of ten) is considered a Hall of Famer.

Know that failure isn’t confined to the batter’s box either.  Infielders, outfielders, and pitchers cannot be expected to be perfect.  Players of all ages and at all levels make mistakes.  Mistakes happen.  What you do and how you perform after the mistake is what defines you as a player.

Joe Garagiola, a former St. Louis Cardinal who spent nine years in the major leagues in the 1940’s and ‘50’s, and later spent several decades as a broadcaster, once said that winners are those who can erase everything from their mind except the factors that determine their immediate performance.  Being in the moment, understanding the task at hand is what’s important.  If something has happened that wasn’t to your liking – a called third strike when hitting, a bases loaded walk when pitching, or a grounder through your legs when fielding – you have to let it go and focus in the moment.

When hitting, it doesn’t really matter what happened during the last game, or your last at-bat, or even the last pitch.  When pitching, it doesn’t really matter what happened during the last game, the last batter, or even the last pitch.  When fielding, it doesn’t really matter what happened during the last game, the last inning, or even the last out.  Don’t carry mistakes with you.  Don’t let them infect other aspects of your game.

Let the past be the past.  When things aren’t going your way, think about the solution, not the problem.  Concentrate on what you must do, don’t be distracted by what you have done.