How Could You Let Us Down Like That?

This is a very short message - with a lot to say.

We want our players to do their best all the time but we sometimes confuse their doing the best they can with our expectation of them to be perfect in all situations, especially the critical situations. Many, many times I have seen coaches (and the crowd) get on players who did their best and it wasn’t good enough for their purposes.

“Why did you pop up on that high pitch?”

“Why did you boot that easy grounder?”

“Why did you let her get that hit?”

I don’t know about you, but I have never seen a player pop up on purpose in a crucial situation, or make an error on purpose, or let an opponent get a hit. If your best hitter is batting .300, he is going to get a hit only three times in every ten official times at bat and will makes an out the other seven times. Everybody makes errors and I don’t know a single pitcher who pitches a perfect game every time out.

Nothing more needs to be said.