[Tobra]

It ain't rocket surgery.

In the field it is a matter of knowing what the situation is, and what your responsibilities are. Where the base runners are, how quick they are, your pitcher's tendencies, can the batter hit, how many outs, what is the count. All you have to do is pay attention and watch the ball. When it comes off the bat, you can see where it is going to land, whether you are playing shortstop or center field. You run to where it is going to land or at least get in front of it. If you know what you are supposed to do in advance, it is a matter of reflexes, quickness and hand eye coordination.


Hitting was always pretty easy to me, and I have faced guys with 90+ heaters and good command of their breaking stuff. You can tell what the pitch is by the rotation of the ball and how the pitcher's hand and arm are moving when he throws. I could generally tell if it was a strike or a ball when the guy let go of the ball. I guess it would probably be tougher with some juicehead freak on the hill, I will grant that, but hitting from either side of the plate was no problem. If you have a RHP and you are hitting left, you are two steps closer to 1st. Third baseman sitting back, you drop a bunt, he crowds you too much, you drill an outside pitch off his melon or drop it over his head. If you are not swinging for the fences all the time like most of the d bags playing now, there is nothing to it.

If I got to first, and nobody was on 2nd, I would be on 2nd pretty quick, unless you have a guy who is likely to hit it on the R side of the infield. If the pitcher is thinking about the guy on first, he is not thinking about the guy at the plate. If you know how to run the bases, you can fairly fly. You can use the base to push off rounding 2nd and turn that corner pretty hard. If you are aggressive, people hurry, when people hurry, they make mistakes.

Of course, I am a fat old man now, I probably could not run 40 yards under 5 seconds to save my life, hell I probably could not run a 5 minute mile or even touch a basketball rim, let alone grab it with both hands.