The Boudreau Shift and You

[Lions]

Joe Posnanski has posted an interesting article on the shift that Lou Boudreau began to employ against Ted Williams in 1946. The article, of course, goes beyond baseball when he talks about how people, not just Williams, reacted. According to Posnanski, there were three themes:

Theme 1: Hitters find it very hard to change their core character.
Theme 2: Fans will react negatively when hitters can’t do something that looks easy.
Theme 3: Pride will cause a hitter to do self-destructive things.

You can probably replace “hitter” with just about anyone.

Naturally, I got to thinking about what I might replace "hitter" with. For me, one word I could use would be "procrastinator". I'm not nearly as bad as I used to be, but I still have had a hard time just doing things that need to get done when I don't really want to. My wife, who is not a procrastinator at all, just doesn't get why I ever do it (theme 2). It's easy to see how theme 3 fits in, too.

So... what do you think about those themes?

[John]

So... what do you think about those themes?

I think they're spot on. I think a lot of batters come to the plate with a mentality that runs along the lines of "Nobody's going to force me to go the opposite way; I'll bash my way through the shift." Until that changes, shifts will continue to prove very effective against pull hitters.

Pride definitely leads me to self-destructive behaviors. I have learned that it's essential for me to guard against lashing out at those I care for when my pride gets wounded. I'm getting better about controlling this with age, but it's probably something I'll have to battle for my entire life.

But I can add one more thing that leads to destructive behavior for me: guilt. I inherited a good deal of that from my mother, who in turn inherited from a long tradition of Irish Catholics. Guilt over seemingly little things can wrack me for days and lead to make poor decisions. This is another thing I'll be battling for as long as I'm breathing.

[Bill]

Well, the Splinter was nothing if not prideful. But you need a little of that to be the best ever at something. I think the fact that WILLIAMS BUNTS! became a headline tells you about the prevailing attitude of the time and Ted was no different. He wasn't going to change and nobody wanted or expected to see him change. And he still did pretty well with what he was doing.

I think it is easy for fans to think it looks easy from the outside. I still go to the ballpark, look at all that outfield grass with 3 little tiny people standing in it and think "how could they not find all that open area with a hit". Obviously, it isn't that easy.

I think we all have pretty self destructive behaviors in one way or another. Like anything, you just can't let them get too extreme.

I was also quite dismayed to see the next blog post was titled RIP Tom Veryzer...