Put the ball in play.
It’s an adage we’ve all heard since our Little League days, usually accompanied by a comforting hand on the shoulder after a tough 0-fer.
“Hey, at least you put the ball in play, son.”
“Yeah…but it’s T-Ball, dad.”
Looking beyond results or quality of contact, it’s comforting knowing you at least performed the essential task as a hitter: I hit the ball. Sometimes it’s all you can do.
The phrase’s virtues were expounded from the broadcast booth last night. Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow have been around the game long enough (and still recovering from and processing the conditions at Candlestick) to know how much of a headache a baseball in motion can be.