Daijoubu

When I started out this blog (which was only five days ago) I resolved to write only about running here. And like any other resolutions it will be broken within a week, so today I am going to write about baseball. I was reading yesterday an interview by Hideki Okajima, a Japanese pitcher who plays for the Boston Red Sox. He joined the Red Sox at the start of this season, and since then he surpassed everybody's expectation and established himself as the No. 1 set-up man. In this interview I was most intrigued by the part when he talks about the game against the San Francisco Giants on 16 June.
http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/baseball/mlb/column/200708/at00014174.html
(Sorry this article is in Japanese)

When he entered the game at the top of the 8th inning, Boston was trying to preserve the slim 1-0 lead. He walked the first batter and the next batter singled to the left, however. With two runners on, coming to the plate was Barry Bonds who hit the all-time home-run record No. 756 this week. Against Bonds Okajima threw two curve balls but quickly fell behind 2-0. At that point the Red Sox pitching coach John Farrell visited the mound and talked to Okajima. I was watching this game on Internet, and I remember the commentator questioning Okajima's command in English and speculating how they are communicating to each other. Well, never mind the language because Okajima was totally a different pitcher after Farrell's visit. He threw a curve-ball and two fast-balls to Barry Bonds, all strikes, and incredibly Bonds didn't swing the bat even once and he was struck out.

I was always curious what pitching coaches say in this kind of situation, but in this particular game I wondered more than ever what Farrell said during his visit, which clearly helped Okajima's performance so much. Well, it was all revealed in this interview. Actually he only said "Daijoubu?" in Japanese, which simply means "all right?" To which Okajima replied "all right." That was it! No instruction on how to attack one of the most feared batter in baseball, or fine-tuning his mechanics. Just an exchange of courteous words! But Okajima said he got his calm back thanks to this visit, and eventually he got out of the jam wothout allowing a run.

I think this episode emphasizes importance of psychology in sports. Long-distance running is also more mental than generally perceived (yes, finally I forced the topic back to running). Paavo Nurmi, nine-time gold medalists at distances from 1,500 to 10,000 meters, said "Mind is Everything; muscle, pieces of rubber. All that I am, I am because of my mind." Have a nice weekend everybody!

Today: 7 miles
Weekly mileage: 47 miles